The Old Switcheroo
by Fantasy Cat
Summary: AU WhatIf.  5-year-old Olive crosses over during one of Bell's tests and never comes back.  Years later she will return to retrieve Peter Bishop and bring him home.  Things are never what they seem for two children raised in the wrong worlds.
1. Chapter 1

**So I just came up with this introductory chapter during my afternoon nap today with no clue where it's going or how it's going to end. Needless to say I may be writing myself in a corner with this one so ALL IDEAS ARE WELCOME. PM me if you got any. I felt the need to write this for the sake of doing something different. **

**Disclaimer: I dont own Fringe or any of the characters.**

* * *

**Alter-New York, 1985**

Secretary Bishop had recently discovered the existence of a second universe. It explained all the strange phenomena. More importantly, it explained the disappearance of his son, Peter. It almost destroyed his marriage not believing Elizabeth at first when she claimed that their son was last seen with him, but he and his team managed to put all the pieces together. He had risen to the position of Secretary of Defense and would now lead the fight to get back his son and stop all the strange phenomenal activity that began occurring in this world…due to the other.

This was when he got the call. A 'black hole' event had occurred in Jacksonville, Florida. Someone had appeared from out of nowhere inside a warehouse and started a fire killing 11 people almost instantly. The person in question was being placed in a secure box and was being flown to New York for interrogation.

The Secretary had a secret underground division in the works that was yet to be approved by the United States government but was in its development stages. It was nicknamed the 'Fringe Division'.

The box had been shipped straight to the underground lab and the Secretary was there. There was no doubt in his mind that a person who appeared out of nowhere and cause such instant bloodshed had to be from the other side.

The door to the steel box opened…and an instant hush fell upon the lab.

The killer from the other world, huddled in the far corner of the steel box, was just a child…a little girl, no older than 5 and long blonde hair that went to the waist.

One of the soldiers who brought the child in informed the Secretary. "Sir, we cant approach her even with restraint. She burned three of my men on the way over here."

"I will take it from here," he said.

The Secretary ordered one of his men to grab a tranquilizer gun and approach the child in the steel box cautiously. Sure enough the girl became terrified knowing that she could not back away from the approaching man with his strange weapon any further. The flames immediately erupted just short of the man as he quickly backed away. He quickly fired the tranquilizer gun and hurried out knowing that he had succeeded.

…

The child had been rendered unconscious for hours while the scientists drew blood tests, DNA tests, just about anything they could get their hands on from this mysterious wonder.

One of the assistants hand a yellow folder to the Secretary. "We found a DNA match, sir. Her DNA is 100% identical to Olivia Dunham…age 5…lives with her mother, father, and younger sister in Boston, Massachusetts."

The Secretary surveyed the pictures. He made it law for every American citizen to have a photo of themselves taken annually for identification purposes. He observed the current picture of Olivia Dunham, a curly red-headed child. Yet beyond that, her eyes were the same as those as the little girl in their custody now.

"We also found this." The assistant placed on Secretary Bishop's desk a yellow bracelet that was on the child when she was found. It had the encryption _'Olive, Jacksonville Military Base #31422'_.

No such military base even existed in Jacksonville here. Now he knew for certain that this child had come from another world.

…

"I will speak to her alone," he said, upon learning that the child was awake and cooperating.

Olive was locked in a secure cell still strapped to the hospital bed she was in. The Secretary knew the risks he was taking so he was cautious as he stepped in. He smiled not caring that the child was crying out of fear.

"Hello, Olive."

He saw her blink in response to her name.

"Wulter?"

The Secretary eyes widened. She knew him. In the other world, she knew his other…the man who had stolen his son. "Why yes, child," he said calmly. "It's me."

But the little girl did not believe him. It was almost as she knew this was a different man in familiar skin. "Who are you?"

"I am who you say I am. Walter…Walter Bishop."

"No!" she screamed. "I wanna go home! I want my mommy and daddy!"

The girl's hysterics alerted the attention of staff who rushed into the room to secure the child.

Small flames began to appear around the room as the Secretary stood back.

"We need to give her more Xerotichin before this whole lab goes up in flames!" cried one the doctors.

Without little Olive knowing, one of the doctors managed to inject a needle in her back shoulder and she became unconscious again.

"What are we going to do with this child?" the doctor asked Secretary Bishop. "She's unpredictable."

"We continue with the tests," he said coldly. "Find out how this child came to be here."

…

Weeks went by and the Xerotichin in her blood canceled out the unusual chemical compounds in her system stopping her fire-starting abilities. Yet she still had fits and fought the doctors endlessly, screaming to go home. For days Olive was screaming for two people named "Wulter" and "Willum". The doctors administered more drugs to calm her but it only made her very sick. On the plus side, she was eventually admitting defeat and accepting that she wouldn't be hurt if she just submitted to these doctors' will.

By then, Olive had become deathly ill. Her skin had become white and she was half starved from rejecting the food provided to her. The scientists believe that she would not live.

She was asleep when the Secretary had her removed from the cell and placed her in the back seat of his Chrysler.

An hour later, he pulled up to his house in Reiden Lake.

His wife Elizabeth opened the door to greet him, only to drop her mouth in shock at the little girl he was carrying in his arms.

"Prepare a bed," he ordered her.

She led them quickly to the only empty bed she knew…in Peter's room.

"Oh the poor thing! Where did you find her?"

"She crossed over."

"What?"

"She is from the other side…the same side that abducted our Peter."

Elizabeth was in disbelief. "But…that's not possible."

"It is," the Secretary explained. "If they have some sort of technology to cross over to our side, I believe they were testing her ability to travel between universes when she was found."

"But how do you know?"

"I can't be sure. We've tried questioning her to no avail."

"But then she could travel back, right?"

The Secretary smiled. "Not as long as we continuing administering Xerotichin in her system."

"You're keeping her here?"

"Exactly, Elizabeth. They stole our child…so we steal one of theirs. If we continue to study her it will only be a matter of time till we can finally harness her ability for our benefit. Don't you see? This is genius!"

Elizabeth could not believe what her husband was suggesting. "You mean to keep her and raise her as our own? I don't know if I can do this, Walter. She's not ours."

"She's young enough. We can erase her memory. It wont be long before she starts calling you her mother. Think of Peter, Elizabeth! Think of how hard we struggled to conceive him only to have him taken away! This child could be our saving grace…our revenge!"

Elizabeth had been in denial of losing Peter. She was still convinced that one of these days her husband would walk into the house with their son in hand as if they had returned from their short trip to treat his bird flu. Now she wondered if the man who stole her child even had a cure or was just abducting Peter for their own benefit. If so, then it was likely by this point that Peter was dead, and she couldn't bear the thought of that. But here lying in Peter's bed now, was a little girl on the verge of death herself. So Elizabeth got up and went to the kitchen. She returned with a bowl of chicken noodle soup. The smell stirred little Olive from sleep.

"Mommy?"

"Shh, it's alright dear." As soon as Elizabeth offered Olive a spoonful of soup, she quickly accepted. Walter had been watching them. Olive was being a lot more cooperative now that she was in a safe, home-like environment and was quick to devour the soup that was slowly diminishing her illness.

Elizabeth turned to her husband and gave him a look…a look that said 'I hope you're right.' Her silent acceptance to play her part for the sake of their world…and to avenge Peter.

…

"Everyday I continue to mourn my son's loss with a heavy heart," said the Secretary looking out over the number of press in attendance. "I thank those who have given my family privacy during these difficult times. But today is day of change. I thank the United States Congress for approving the funding of the Fringe Division. The Fringe Division is our world's last hope in fighting this crisis that has ravaged our world and has caused many tragedies. But we have in these times triumph with many successes. And I believe it is only fair that my daughter, Olivia, be allowed to cut the ribbon to commemorate the opening of the United States Fringe Division."

As soon as Olivia made her way up the stage, she was bombarded by camera flashes, brighter than the cute yellow sailor dress she wore. It was a very uncomfortable situation but she was glad that Elizabeth was with her every step of the way, and even helped her hold the giant scissors to cut the ribbon. As soon as she cut the ribbon, the curtain came down and a large door with the Fringe Division logo appeared. Elizabeth guided her off the stage to escape the loud applause and the persistent paparazzi who have turned Olivia Bishop into a child celebrity due to her father's high status.

She tucked at Elizabeth's skirt. "How did I do, mommy?"

"You did wonderful, Olivia. Now let's go take your medicine and then we'll get you some ice cream okay?"

The paparazzi continued to follow them until they finally got to their car.

…

"Mommy! Mommy! Look at that girl on TV! She looks just like me only she has blonde hair and her name's Olivia just like me! I want blonde hair, Mommy!"

Marilyn walked into the room to see her daughter watching some sort of news conference on the TV. "Now Olive, you know you're beautiful as you are with red hair. Why don't you come help me give Rachel a bath?"

The little girl got up from the television unaware that that would be the last time she would actually see her alternate self.


	2. Chapter 2

**Whoa! I was completely blown away by the response to my first chapter. I guess this means I have no choice but to keep going. As you may have noticed, I have change the story summary as the plot itself has changed, only slightly so. **

**As for if Peter and Olivia are gonna hook up despite the unusual plot…well you're gonna haveta read, review and find out for yourself.**

* * *

**Alter-New York, Present Day**

Olivia never had much control over her life.

In the wake of the tragic events plaguing the world, she became a child of the spotlight…a political darling meant to raise the spirits of Americans in every public appearance she made alongside her parents. It also helped that she had an abducted older brother. But whenever she tried to ask her mother about this 'brother' she never recalled knowing, she was either hushed or distracted to get her mind off the topic.

When she reached her preteen years, the public lost interest in her cute girlish image as the 'black hole' events increased, as well as the bloodshed. Olivia no longer brought the hope and optimism that kept the public going in the 80s.

She never got to go to school. Walter demanded that Olivia be kept away from the public for her own benefit…and also because of her sickness. She didn't even know what her sickness was. All she knew was that she was forced to take a medicine called Xerotichin every single day.

And despite her family's enormous wealth, Olivia was never allowed to leave the house unless she was escorted. The only place she was allowed to go to outside of her home these days was the lab. Her father did tests on her constantly to find a cure for her illness. Olivia was always compliant only because that she hated having to take Xerotichin everyday and she had no better options.

She never had a close relationship with her father. He was never at home except for those rare occasions. But she always saw him when she had to go to the labs. They never connected on a personal level there either. He was always behind a wall while doctors were always poking and prodding at her trying to get to the route of her illness.

It drove her mad. It drove her insane and many times she even tried to runaway from home only to be brought back by police and pumped full of drugs to keep her restrained.

Now she was a 30-year-old woman and a prisoner in her parents' home. While everyone her age got to go college and live independent lives, she was forced to stay in the house to cope with an illness she wasn't sure even existed. The only person she had to communicate with and keep her sane was her mother. She was the only person in her life she had ever trusted and was willing to form the slightest positive relationship with. But for the most part, Olivia was cold and aloof to everyone she met.

Elizabeth did her best to give Olivia a good life despite the restrictions her husband placed on her.

"Olivia, dear?"

Her daughter barely gave mother the slightest bit of attention as she was reading her books. She didn't even respond to her when she started brushing her hair.

"Your father wants to have lunch with you."

"So he can poke me with a needle afterwards? He's tricked me like that before."

"But that was when you were little. He trusts that you've been taking your medicine."

"Then why does he want to see me?"

Her mother said nothing and just continued to fashion her hair.

Shortly afterwards, Olivia slipped into her business dress and was escorted to New York City to the restaurant at the top of Tower One where the wealthy and powerful gathered.

"Olive." Walter stood waiting to greet his daughter. "Sit. Order anything you want."

Olivia was quick to order the most expensive drink on the menu: the café latte, which was $1500 a cup. This restaurant was the only place in the city where she could get lattes. And for her meal she ordered the turkey, because she knew it was the meat that only the rich could afford to eat. It was all mostly done to spite her father's good charity.

"Why must you always wear black?"

"It suits me, father."

"It's depressing and lifeless. When my little Olive is out in public, I expect her to be bright and full of color…just like it used to be."

"Those days are past our time, father. And I'm not your little Olive anymore. I hate when you call me that."

Walter grumbled. "Judging by that tongue of yours young lady, I suspect you haven't taken your medication today. But I have that handled." Walter then brought his hand up and summoned the waiter. The waiter approached Olivia placing a small saucer with four of those disgusting-yellow capsules right under her nose.

Olivia was angry. Somehow her father had a way of knowing when she tried to skip on her medication. There was a never a day so far when she was able to skip it.

"It's alright, Olive. It's just plain Xerotichin. Unless you prefer having it administered through the needle as when you were 5."

Reluctantly but bitterly, Olivia had to swallow each one of those capsules in front of her father.

"Olive, I wanted to speak to you in regards to your illness."

"Did you find a cure?" Olivia asked. She wasn't expecting a yes answer from him.

"No, but my assistants have discovered something about your illness…something that may open up a great opportunity for you. Aside from working on curing you, my lab has done numerous other experiments. Do you believe in the existence of alternate realities?"

"I'm afraid I'm not that imaginative, father."

"How disappointing, because we have tested the compounds in your body for the past several years and we believe you have the ability to visit such alternate worlds."

"It this supposed to be a joke?"

"Absolutely not," said Walter. "These alternate worlds have been the cause of many terrible events, the black holes, the people in amber…the other side is the cause of it…and you, Olive, may be able to put an end to all of it."

None of this really made any sense to Olivia. "And how am I supposed to do that?"

That was when Walter told her the words she hated to hear. "We'll need you to come to the lab."

…

The lab was a second home to Olivia…a really bad second home. She knew all the doctors there, as they have all experimented on her in some form or another. It was weird coming to the lab and not having to put on the gown. In fact, her father was taking her to a new part of the lab she had never seen before. It was here where she saw strange pillars of mercury standing tall and molding themselves into unusual shapes.

She swore the shapes were that of a human.

"These are the only beings, aside from you, that are capable of crossing over. They are hybrid soldiers, masses of human genetics and mercury. They can transform to take on any human image."

Olive pointed to one of the mercury pillars. "Do they all look like that?"

"They come out in perfect form, dear Olive. And I'll prove it to you. Newton!"

A well-dressed man approached the pair, at least Olivia was certain it was a man.

"Newton, this is my daughter, Olivia. She has yet to see a hybrid soldier in completed human form. You are the first."

"Charmed." Newton gently took Olivia's hand and pressed his lips to it. On closer inspection Olivia could see that his kiss had left a faint trace of mercury on the back of her hand.

The three went into Walter's office, a place that Olivia had only seen a few times on her many visits to the lab.

"Father, I need to ask. If you have these shapeshifters to travel to this other world for you, then why do you need me?"

"Because, Olive," Walter explained. "Even the strongest of them, like Newton, are quite vulnerable. We've duplicated some of the compounds found in your bloodstream to give them the ability to cross over. But once they get there, the results become unpredictable. Some die in the process and others do not last a day. But you, Olive, you are fully human, and your illness gives you an immunity from the effects of crossing over. You will be our best bet in accomplishing the mission."

"The mission?"

"We're sending you to the other side. Newton will meet you there. Your time will be limited, but I have faith that you'll be able to retrieve the one we're looking for. And if you suceed, Olive, you will be famous. You'll be heralded as the savior of our universe."

Olivia never cared about being a savior. The only thing that her father spoke of that grasped her interest was going somewhere alone…well almost alone. Maybe if she was lucky, she could lose Newton and be able to go wherever she wanted.

Just then, Walter handed to Olivia two photos. One of them was a man but it was a computer-rendered photo. The other was a picture of a child…a familiar boy. Olivia recognized the boy's face from the photo frames in her mother's bedroom.

"Father…is this?"

"Yes. You're crossing over to look for your brother. You're going to bring Peter Bishop home."


	3. Chapter 3

For the next few weeks, Olivia began to spend more time in her father's lab, not as a guinea pig, but more like a soldier in training. She was only given a few special drugs to test her ability to endure the elements she would face on her mission.

To her surprise, Olivia found herself capable of doing things she had never had experience in doing. She could protect herself, do hand to hand combat, climb and jump incredible leaps…

…she could even fire a gun, right on target.

Instead of questioning how this was possible, Olivia tried to enjoy herself. She knew that her father would not let her use these new abilities for her own amused. Yet she enjoyed the adrenaline rush she got wrestling with her trainers and firing the bullseyes in target practice.

As it got closer to her departure, Olivia knew that her parents have been having heated arguments at home…arguments about her and Peter that could be heard within the sanctuary of her bedroom. Determined, Olivia was now going to get her questions answered on her last day at home.

"Are you going to tell me about him now?"

"Him?"

"My brother, Peter."

Elizabeth had always been unsure about speaking to Olivia about the little brother she never knew. But now that it was going to be Olivia's mission to find and retrieve him, it was now okay to let everything out into the open.

"When he was 7, Peter had a rare disease…not like yours. This flu…he was close to death. One night, your father came home and told me that he finally found a cure, but he needed to get Peter to his lab at Cambridge right away. I wanted to go with them…but he convinced me to stay behind. I got Peter's things…I should've known…something was off about him the way he spoke, the way he was dressed. An hour later, your father returned…" Elizabeth began to sob. "I put Peter in the arms of a stranger…"

"Mother…" Olivia placed a hand on her back.

"Olivia, you're not under any obligation to do this."

"Well I don't think father's going to give me a choice. Plus, I feel like if I don't come back with Peter, it'll break him…and you."

Elizabeth took Olivia's hand. "No dear. No matter what happens you'll always be…" Elizabeth stopped herself just in time from drawing suspicion from Olivia. "You're my daughter, and I will always love you."

"I love you too, mother." Olivia couldn't help but feel a since of dread as her mother wrapped her arms around her. Not that something bad was bound to happen but this mission could possibly change her…change everything in a way that may not be for the better.

"Olive."

The women looked up to see Walter standing by the bedroom door. "It is time."

Before she could leave, Olivia had to hold her pet rabbit Pumpkin one last time. Her father had given the rabbit to her as a child and after all of these years, it surprisingly did not age. Knowing that Pumpkin came from her father's lab, it was safe to assume that the rabbit was a product of experimentation…just like Olivia.

"Take care of Pumpkin for me?"

"Of course." Elizabeth kissed her daughter on both cheeks and sent her with her father.

It was eerily similar to the way she sent off Peter for the last time.

…

"Are you ready for this, Olive?"

Olivia closed her eyes. "Ready as I'll ever be, father."

"Just remember, you have every right to protect yourself over there if any danger comes to you. Newton will meet you there and ensure that you have everything you need to complete your mission."

She should've known as her father injected a needle into her body that more drugs would be involved. Suddenly the table she lied on began to move as she was being transported through a machine, feeling very sleepy.

"Good luck to you, my Olive."

Soon everything went black.

…

When Olivia woke up, she was feeling very dizzy and was occasionally blinded by unusual flashes of light. As the lights eventually faded, Olivia senses returned to her and she got up. She found herself inside a dark warehouse. Looking around, she saw a strange group of large blobs sitting there in a dark corner and tried to approach them.

"Don't touch them."

Olivia stopped and turned around to find Newton standing there.

"You don't want them to take on _your_ body by accident."

He handed Olivia a bag of clothes for her to change into which was a relief because Olivia felt rather exposed in her medical gown. After she got changed, Newton packed for her a series of guns that he knew she was now trained to use. He also had an unusual thumbprint reading device.

"This will be your central tool in identifying Peter Bishop. Just get a thumbprint and the device will read for a match in seconds. And this…" Newton pulled out a remote. "Is still a rather new piece of technology. This gives us DNA readings from further distances allowing us to cut down on areas to search."

"That still doesn't help us in knowing where to start though," said Olivia.

"On the contrary. I have been in contact with some of my men. One has been working in the body of an FBI agent giving him access to Peter's records in the Bureau. So far we know that the man is a nomad who is constantly traveling. On the plus side, he has committed numerous felonies allowing us to get a better track on his whereabouts. His last known location is in Baghdad, Iraq. I will arrange for our passports and tickets."

Olivia found it unusual that she had to wear garments to cover herself once the two of them arrived in Iraq, especially since it was hot. But Newton informed her that this was typical in this country and she would have to be on her guard since she stood out more.

"It should be easier to pick Peter Bishop out of a crowd here," said Newton.

They arrived in a small where Newton knew that a handful of Americans were mingling for business or military purposes. "He's been known to be quite the drinker."

Immediately Olivia thought _'like brother, like sister'_.

"So these taverns will be our best bet. Keep your guns and trackers under your robes."

"I'm going in alone?"

"You should be fine," Newton explained. All you need to do is scan the tavern for any possible gentlemen that may resemble him. If you do, go sit at the bar. Let him come to you. I assure you it will work. He has a tendency to pick up women who are alone and stand out."

Olivia didn't like the sound of that, considering that this man is supposed to be her brother.

"If all else fails, meet me back outside."

As soon as she made it into the tavern, she did what Newton suggested she should do and sat at the bar. She looked around to see any American men. Her eyes then caught sight of a man in the dark corner. He stood up and was heading in her direction. Olivia quickly turned her eyes away.

The man sat down right next to her and ordered two red-colored drinks. One he nonchalantly slid over to Olivia's side. She looked up at him and he gave her a charming smirk.

'_This has to be him,'_ Olivia thought. Blue eyes and brown hair. There was no way it couldn't be. But now the question was how to get this man's thumbprints on her thumbprint device without him knowing.

"Ever had a Red Russian?" he asked.

"What is it?" she asked shyly.

"Mint Tea and Vodka mostly."

Olivia reluctantly took the shot and the look on her face nearly sent the man into hysterics. That was definitely like no taste she had ever expected. "Oh wow. That's…different."

"You get use to it," said the man. "So I can't imagine you're from around here."

Olivia was getting nervous now. "I'm…here on business."

"Oh, I get ya," said the man. "Well I'm here on 'business' too."

Olivia knew she could not just sit here and drag the conversation into awkward territory. She knew she had to act fast if this man was indeed Peter. She placed one hand into the pockets of her robe where the thumbprint device was. The other reached out to the man. "I'm Olivia."

"Olivia, huh? That's a good name for you. I'm Paul…Paul King."

Olivia smiled after shaking the man's hand. The hand in her pocket let go of the device. To her disappointment…this unfortunately was not the man they were looking for.


	4. Chapter 4

"I should get going."

Paul was a bit disappointed to see Olivia getting up from her seat. Beyond her, he could see the entry door to the tavern open and two angry Arab men entered…two angry **familiar** Arab men.

Needless to say, everyone in the tavern had reason to panic when one of them took out their gun and shot it in the air. Everyone in the tavern either ran or took cover.

"Crap!" Paul grabbed Olivia's arm in the midst of confusion and chaos. "Come on. We can go out the back."

"But wha-"

Paul didn't say anything but pulled Olivia towards the back entrance of the tavern.

The men began to yell in Farsi. Strange enough, Olivia was able to catch some of the words even though she had never been taught a single word of the Persian language in her life, much less knew it even existed.

And she could've sworn that she heard one of the men say "Bishop". Perhaps it was Farsi for something but she couldn't be sure.

Paul and Olivia got outside, and saw soldiers rushing towards the tavern's front entrance. Olivia also saw Newton, who followed the soldiers in. She panicked and turned her head away.

"What's wrong?" Paul asked looking worried.

"Oh, it's nothing."

"Nothing? I figure you'd be a little bit scared after seeing those crazy gunmen coming in."

"I was scared of that," Olivia argued.

Paul began to raise an eyebrow of suspicion. "What are you doing in Iraq, anyway?"

"I…" Olivia's hesitation trapped her. Paul was getting more and more suspicious as she kept looking back towards the tavern.

"You hiding from someone?"

"Sort of," she said. Olivia was afraid that Newton would find her and assume that she tried to run away. She was afraid he would send her back to her world and then she knew her father would give her some very unpleasant drugs again. It was too late to turn back now.

"My hotel isn't far from here," said Paul as he guided Olivia towards the streets.

Shortly after, Newton got out of the tavern after failing to find Olivia. He looked around but the streets were crowded with people. It was impossible to find her now.

He dreaded calling the Secretary but he had to know that his daughter was now missing in the other world.

…

Olivia became quiet and fear ridden while she was settling into Paul's hotel room. Her mind screaming 'what the hell was she doing'? She couldn't go back to Newton, but she couldn't be stranded in a foreign country in an alternate universe either.

"Look, you can't fool me anymore," said Paul. "Do you need help? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

"Yeah," Olivia sighed. It was no lie now.

"Well, you know, we're both from the States right? All I need to do is get us some papers and we can both make it out of here unseen. From there, you can go wherever you want…unless you enjoy living on the streets of Iraq. I did that for quite some time, and I'm telling ya honey, it's not a pleasant ride."

"You'd do that for me?"

"I enjoy helping a lady in trouble, I guess. You can keep low here while I go get our stuff."

Olivia silently agreed and Paul left her for a short trip to get the required papers.

When he returned, Paul placed an I.D. of a blonde woman infront of her. "Well, she does kinda look like you. But you know that's actually a picture of Cate Blanchett from a People Magazine."

Olivia had to stop herself from asking what People Magazine even was.

Too soon however, Paul was ready to leave, and Olivia couldn't stop looking behind her shoulder as she joined him in the taxi.

They both managed to go through security and Olivia nervously gave her passport with the name "Lila Hill." Security let them through and soon they were on a plane back to the States.

Her hands continued to grip the arms of her chair for hours. What was she doing? What on earth was she doing?

She was abandoning the mission…she was abandoning her mother and father…and she was lost.

To her surprise, Paul placed a hand on hers. "Relax," he said. "You're gonna be fine."

The words rang in her ears with an eerie sense of familiarity but she couldn't determine where. "I'm sorry," she said. "Thank you."

"It's no problem." Paul got up. "Excuse me."

When Paul got up to go to the bathroom, Olivia began to calm down. She looked over at Paul's beer glass thinking she may get a beer herself. But then something caught her eye…

She could barely see the fingerprints on his glass and saw something familiar in the patterns. From out of her pockets, Olivia pulled out her I.D. device and set it to capture the picture of his fingerprints.

Five minutes later…she got a match…a 100% match.

How could she have been so stupid? All this time Paul King was Peter Bishop!

And before she knew it, the man she now knew to be Peter Bishop returned to his seat by Olivia's side. "Feeling better now?" he said. Olivia nodded and quietly went back to watching the window.

Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad now, Olivia thought. All she had to do was wait and bide her time until they landed and then get Peter when he least suspected it.

…

They still weren't close to their destination when Olivia began to feel very weird. It couldn't be jetlag. It was as if she was nauseous and depressed at the same time. She tried to fall asleep in her seat but then began to have weird flashbacks.

"_Don't wanna go."_

"_I know you're scared, Olive. But you're going to be fine. Just stay where you are. Don't move no matter what. That's very important. I promise your parents will come to bring you home tonight."_

_Something triggered in her head and it was almost as if she was going backwards._

_Then she saw two people looking down on her. They were warm and loving but neither of them were her mother or father. The woman was blonde and had eyes just like hers. The father was in a nice military suit._

_Behind them was a room painted purple and covered with white lace curtains. A tiny pink bed sat in the room on the far wall and she could see a little blonde head fast asleep._

_The woman leaned her head down to kiss her forehead._

"_Good night Olivia," she said. "Mommy loves you."_

_This woman claimed to be her mother and for some odd reason, Olivia was seriously beginning to believe her._

"Olivia?"

The sudden touch of a hand on her shoulder caused her to suddenly throw up.

Peter quickly worked to help clean up the vomit.

"Olivia? You okay?"

She looked up at him and her mind drew a blank. "Where…am I?"

"You're on a plane, Olivia. Or did you forget?"

"No…who are you? What I'm doing here?"

Peter stopped her after she took off her seatbelt. "Olivia? It's me! Calm down!"

"No!" Olivia said. "Get off of me! I don't know you! I want to go home! Don't hurt me! I want my mommy and daddy!"

By now all eyes where on the two of them. Olivia was clearly turning pale and was screaming and fighting off Peter. A flight attendant and an Air Marshall quickly came to aid.

"I dunno what's wrong with her," said Peter. "She started to feel sick and then just freaked out."

"Does she know you?" asked the Air Marshall.

"We met in Iraq. She wanted to come with me, I swear it!"

"We'll we need to take her to the back." The Marshall then turned to the flight attendant. "Tell the pilot we need to make an emergency landing…the nearest U.S. city we can get to."

Olivia was dragged by Peter and the Marshall to the back of the plane and the Marshall had no choice but to handcuff her to the seat. Olivia began to scream and cover her ears. "Olivia? You need to calm down. Whatever's wrong we can help you when we land."

"I want my mommy and daddy!"

Peter was creeped out by the way she was saying this, crying for them like a child. "Okay," said Peter. "When we land, I promise to help you find your parents, okay?"

That seemed to calm her down a bit, but she was still crying.

"Attention passengers," the flight attendant announced. "We want to thank you for your patience. Our flight has been rerouted to Boston and we should be landing there shortly. Thank you."

Peter froze. Boston? They were landing in Boston?

He didn't want to think about it…he didn't want to think about why he knew Boston was the worst possible place they could be heading to.

…

"This is inexcusable! How could they lose her?"

"There was a situation in the city sir," one of the soldiers addressed the Secretary. It's believed that Olivia was lost in the confusion."

"If Newton was here I would have his head!"

"It gets worse, I'm afraid sir," said the soldier. "It's been estimated that your daughter has been missing for more than 24 hrs since she took her last dose of Xerotichan."

The Secretary had to sit after hearing that. Olivia had never missed a single dose of Xerotichan. This was not good. He knew that not only Olivia would suffer physical side effects, but that she would also start to remember things…things he had attempted to repress from her memories for nearly 25 years.


	5. Chapter 5

**Airport Security, Boston**

Peter was allowed to follow the Air Marshall as he escorted Olivia off the plane. It was clear from the look on her face that she was still in her frightened-child state and had thrown up a couple of times once they entered the airport.

He wouldn't have been able to escape anyway as they were going to ask him more questions.

"Can I ask what you two were doing exactly in Iraq? That's not a typical place to pick up American women."

The Marshall had a point and it was starting to make Peter sweat. "We met in a bar, there. She said she was in Iraq on business but she didn't get anymore specific than that." Peter couldn't help but watch as Olivia was sitting handcuffed in a chair whimpering and rocking back and forth.

"Did you get a name?"

"Olivia. But she never told me her last name."

"Well, guess I'll have to question her then." The Marshall cautiously approached Olivia. "Miss, could I get your full name please?"

Olivia's eyes went all over the room. "Olivia…"

"_Dunham, I'm Olivia Dunham."_

_Another needle went into her shoulder._

"_I told you, child. Your last name is Bishop, Olivia Bishop. Dear thing, your memory has gotten ill."_

"_Your not my daddy!"_

_More white coats arrived to restrain the child, and the Secretary looked down coldly. He was not happy with Olivia's lack of cooperation._

"_We have no choice then," he said. "Increase the Xerotichan."_

"_But Mr. Secretary. That might cause some brain damage."_

"_Do it."_

"_I'm Olivia…," the girl quietly said._

"Olivia…Bishop."

Peter eyes went wide.

And she said it again "I'm Olivia Bishop." She then looked up at Peter, and a hundred different images began flashing before her eyes. She threw herself and her chair in the direction of Peter, the one handcuff holding her back. "You! Peter Bishop! I can't let you get away!"

"Whoa! What the hell?"

"Get me out of these handcuffs! I've come to take you home, Peter! You're my brother!"

The Marshall pulled Olivia from off the floor and had to put a second pair of handcuffs on her attached to a deskleg so she couldn't attack Peter again. "Get away from me!" she started screaming. She was switching personalities infront of Peter's eyes. "I'm Olivia Dunham! Olivia Dunham! You're not my daddy!"

"That does it," said the Marshall. "We need the police here, now." He hurried over to the phone to dial the police. As he was doing so, Peter's eye caught something on the floor…a strange device. It had fallen out of Olivia's pocket when she tried to attack him. He picked it up and saw the text read '100% match – Peter Bishop'.

He pocketed it before the Air Marshall was done with his phone call.

…

The police arrived half an hour later and tried to interrogate Olivia only to have her puke and go into mild hysterics. She kept changing her last name to either Bishop or Dunham as if she couldn't make up her mind which one it was.

Peter had been watching carefully. He could definitely see a change in Olivia's persona depending on what last name she used. Whenever Olivia said "Bishop" she seemed a bit more like herself only fiery in Peter's presence. Whenever she said "Dunham", she would start to scream or cry or fight.

A police officer came over to Peter. "We can't locate any information on either an Olivia Bishop or Olivia Dunham. And unfortunately, she's in no condition to stay at a police station."

"What's gonna happen to her then?" Peter asked, feeling genuinely worried…almost pity for the poor woman.

"We're sending her to a mental institution."

Peter's stomach dropped. "What?"

"There's one up in Essex that can take her in. I think it's called St. Claire's. We're bringing a car to escort her there right now."

"St. Claire's?"

"You've heard of it?"

Peter sighed. "My father's in there."

…

By the time it was all over, Olivia was long gone and Peter was sitting in a Boston bar contemplating over what to do now. It wasn't like he had been sidetracked from anything truly important. These days, he only went where the wind meant to take him.

Maybe meeting Olivia in Iraq was a sign.

And now he couldn't help but worry about her. But what was he to do? Just go in there and visit her? What would he say to her?

Was he really her brother? Why else would she be looking for him?

But none of it made any sense. He would've known if he had a sister. His parents would've never kept a secret like that from them…or would they? His childhood was already confusing enough. He would be told that this or that had happen to him as a young child and he would have no memory of it. And then he would bicker with his father over the little details. He was sick of his father was always telling him he was wrong about certain memories…especially when Peter swore that he was right.

So was he wrong to believe that he had always been an only child?

There was only one way to find out…

…he would have to go to St. Claire's…even if it meant seeing his father as well…

What a way to kill two birds with one stone.

…

Since arriving at St. Claire's, Olivia had spent most of her time in an isolated cell crying into her prison-wear. Her mind had become a jumbled mess. She didn't know which part of her was real and she didn't know why she was so confused about her last name.

She didn't know who she was anymore.

She had moments where she remembered the mission but it only led her to panic about realizing she was now in a cell (with no recollection of how she got there). Then there was her other side feeling like she was a prisoner but for another purpose she couldn't quite put her finger on.

Giving up, Olivia eventually succumbed to a nap…staring at the nothingness of the four walls surrounding her until she slept.

…

New chills keep traveling down his spine as he got closer to the cold depressing facility. He started to feel bad that Olivia would be sent to a terrible place like this. She seemed like a lovely sane woman before that flight.

Perhaps what happened to her was related to what she was hiding from back in Iraq.

Mr. Sumner, the hospital's director, greeted Peter in his office. "What can I do for you, Mr. Bishop?"

"You have someone who was just admitted. A woman named Olivia?"

"Yes," he said. "But we don't know what her last name is. She's only certain that her first name is Olivia."

"I need to speak with her."

"Do you have authority to do so? Are you family?"

"No…well…I dunno. I might be."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Bishop. But we can't let you speak to our patients unless you have authority, or if you're family…for reasons of security."

"You don't understand! I need to ask her something. It's very important."

"I'm sorry, but even if you were allowed to talk to her, it wouldn't be safe. She was admitted here as extremely unstable and a harm to others. Now if her condition improves in the course of a few weeks, then we might be able to work something out."

Peter was desperate. There was only one thing left for him to do.

"Alright, then I want to speak to him."

"Him, who?"

"My father…," said Peter. "I want to speak to my father."

…

Olivia woke up and the memory finally hit her. Her medication…she had not taken her medication in over 2 days now. That explained what was happening to her and it only placed her in greater despair.

She was curled up in a corner when the door to her room opened. "Olivia?"

It was a woman she had never seen before, a kindly older nurse. "The doctors said you can come out for dinner. They want to see if you'll behave."

Slowly, Olivia crawled out of her bed, enticed by the smell of food coming from the outside. She was shaking uncontrollably while the nurse guided her to the mess hall where only a handful of patients were being supervised by a large amount of security guards.

The nurse sat her down in a seat and then returned with a tray of food that didn't look as good as it smelled. She left Olivia alone after that.

There was so much on her mind right now. But Olivia realized she was too hungry to think. She slowly grabbed a spoon and went for the pudding…

"I wouldn't eat that pudding if I were you. It's Monday, which means it's butterscotch pudding day. Absolutely dreadful. I wouldn't feed it to my cat, though I'm not fond of cats, either…"

Olivia turned her eyes toward the direction of the banter. A few feet away across from her, sat and older man who was unkempt and had a rough gray beard. There was an eerie sense of familiarity about him.

The man must've known she was watching him, because he immediately looked up at her.

Their eyes instantly locked.

"It can't be…" The man's face went from shock to almost a sad smile. "Olive?"

But Olivia continued to sit there in complete disbelief. "Father? What are you doing here?"


	6. Chapter 6

"It can't be…" The man's face went from shock to almost a sad smile. "Olive?"

But Olivia continued to sit there in complete disbelief. "Father? What are you doing here?"

The man just sat back, confused. "Terribly sorry. I'm not your father. You must have me confused with someone else."

Olivia rubbed her head. How was this man NOT her father when he clearly looked and sounded like him? Then she remembered where she was. This man had to be her father's alter…

'_How pathetic,'_ Olivia thought.

"Excuse me, Walter?"

The old man turned around and saw Mr. Sumner standing behind him. "Yes?"

"You have a visitor."

Standing behind Mr. Sumner, just a few feet away was Peter. For the longest time, he saw the messy unkempt mass that was his father and then looked at Olivia sitting across from him. Two orderlies were slowly approaching Olivia to remove her from the scene.

"Stop," said Peter. "Let her stay…I have to talk to her."

Mr. Sumner argued. "Mr. Bishop, it's not safe…"

"You have more than enough guards to keep an eye out, doctor. I need to talk to both of them now if you don't mind…"

Mr. Sumner, after much hesitation, agreed to have the room cleared out so it was just Peter, Walter, Olivia and a handful of guards at the exit ways.

Peter reluctantly took a seat a few feet from Olivia until he was sitting straight across from Walter.

"Peter!" Walter smiled. "I thought you'd be fatter."

"You thought I'd be fatter?"

"Yes…oh…have you met my friend um…" He kept looking at Olivia. "Oh dear, I've forgotten your name already."

"Her name is Olivia," said Peter. "And yes that's why I'm here. Can either of you explain why she tried to attack me and kept calling me her brother?"

"Brother?" said Walter. "That's impossible, Peter. You were always an only child."

Olivia murmured "you never told him, did you?"

Peter was getting freaked out. "Tell me what?"

Olivia looked up and saw the fear in Walter's eyes meeting with her cold vicious ones. "You never told him the truth about where he's really from?"

"From where?"

She turned to Peter and smirked. "You're from another universe."

Peter blinked. "What?"

"Your father is a scientist. Why doesn't he explain it a little more?"

Walter just sat there. "Son…"

"Stop it! Both of you! You're creeping me out. From another universe? That's got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Peter angrily stood up and began to walk away…he turned back as soon as he heard a noise. Olivia was throwing up again. The puke landed straight into her dinner tray.

She looked at Peter and he saw the change in her eyes…the same look he saw when she threw up on the plane.

She then turned to Walter. Her mind was flashing back to a cleaner, younger version of the old man who looked almost like a doctor.

"Wuh-wulter?"

Walter reached out to touch Olivia's cheeks. He became struck with instant grief. He remembered…he remembered what happened now.

"Oh…Olive. I'm so sorry. We did everything we could to find you…but when we did…"

Olivia saw Walter's image suddenly change…to a darker well-dressed man. She could feel the needles being injected into herself. She could almost feel the electrical shocks.

She jumped out of her seat instantly and backed away from Walter.

Peter ran back over quickly. "Walter…tell us."

"Tell you?" Walter was getting scared.

"Me and Olivia. What happened to her?"

Walter began to rock back and forth nervously. "It was just a short test…Olive was supposed to user her Cortexiphan abilities to travel there and then return …but we didn't get to her in time. My partner William Bell…he traveled to the other side several time to find her himself. And he told me…he was raising her…my alternate self." Walter said those last words almost bitterly. "He kidnapped her and raised her as his own child…"

The room went silent.

"You're lying…"

Both Walter and Peter turned to Olivia who was slowly regaining herself. "It's not true…"

"The drug," said Walter. "Willy told me that they made you take a drug. He stole some of its contents. I could see now why he gave it to you. The drug had compounds typically found in substances given for memory erasure…or brainwashing of the mind. It was to ensure that you never remembered your true circumstances."

Olivia kept shaking her head at Walter. Suddenly she picked up her dinner tray and threw it at him.

"YOU'RE LYING!"

On instinct, Peter dove between the two of them and Olivia tried to push Peter away…determined to get at her father's alternate.

"YOU'RE LYING!"

Peter pleaded with Olivia. "Stop it, please."

"Peter…you are my brother! Don't listen to him!"

At that moment several guards ran towards Olivia and grabbed her.

"Olivia…"

"I'm not the one who was kidnapped! It was you!"

Peter stopped.

As Olivia was being dragged away, Olivia screamed at Walter. "Tell him…tell him you lying bastard!" The guards had to taze her in order for her to calm down…but all of the sudden…

"FIRE!"

Fires appeared in various parts of the room and immediately the fire alarm and sprinkler systems activated…sending everyone into a frenzy.

Peter couldn't take anymore. He had to get out of here but before he could Walter grabbed him.

"Son!"

"Get away from me! You and Olivia are both freaks!"

"Son, listen to me. They've brainwashed her. I'm telling you the truth!"

"You're in a mental institution! You're not in a position to tell me what's true!"

"My lab!" said Walter. "My lab at Harvard. My work with William Bell is all there. The basement of the Kresge Building!"

Mr. Sumner hurried over to Peter. "Mr. Bishop, you need to get out of here now!"

As he pulled him away, Peter could hear his father yelling. "Go there, son! The answers are there!"

But the last image that haunted him was seeing Olivia fight and struggle with the guards who eventually managed to render her unconscious. Her screams were still echoing in his ears.

…

**Days later**

Peter could not believe that he was actually breaking into his father's old lab. Fortunately for him, there was no one around to watch him do it and the lab itself had been abandoned for years. But what happened at St. Claire's had haunted the living daylights out of him, and his only option now was to figure out who exactly was telling the truth and who was the real liar.

He spent hours rummaging through old files and paperwork until he found a file from 1985 marked _'last tests on Cortexiphan children'_. Inside one of the folders was an envelope that said 'destroy'. Inside was an old BETA tape.

'_Cortexiphan'_, Peter remembered Walter saying that…no doubt referring to Olivia.

He managed to find an old BETA player and a TV to rig so he could watch.

_In the video, there was a small room and a little blonde girl was led to sit in the corner. Peter could tell right away that this was in fact, Olivia._

"_Don't wanna go!"_

_"I know you're scared, Olive," a familiar voice called from off screen. "But you're going to be fine. Just stay where you are. Don't move no matter what. That's very important. I promise your parents will come to bring you home tonight."_

"_You promise?"_

"_Yes. The sooner we finish, the sooner you get to go home. Isn't that wonderful?"_

_Peter finally recognized that voice as his father's._

_He could hear another man in the video asking "is the screen ready?"_

_Two men in labcoats suddenly appeared on screen to set up a strange window infront of where Olive was sitting. One of the labcoats turned on the device and suddenly Olive disappeared within the pane of the window. Instead a brand new environment was shown, a bit darker and run down than the room she was in now. _

"_Should this succeed," said Walter. "Subject should appear in the environment within the screen. Are you ready, Olive?"_

_There was a faint murmur from Olive that Peter couldn't make clear of and then there was a sudden shaking in the room. The video went white and then…Peter looked hard at the strange screen device showing another room. That image was white and then suddenly there was screaming. For one brief moment, he saw her…in the screen and then another flash._

"_NO!"_

"_SHE'S STARTED A FIRE!"_

_At this point in the video, it seemed that the camera was knocked off its tripod because now Peter could see nothing but he could hear screaming and chaos._

"_Walter! Bring her back before she gets killed!"_

"_It's not working!"_

_There was more yelling and screaming until the screen went blank._

_Seconds later Walter appeared on screen though his eyes could not look at the camera. He seemed to be disheveled and his neck had a lot of bruises._

"_This…," he said almost mumbling. "This will be my final log. Project Redemption has reached its end. Belly has informed me that we may likely be sent to prison over what's happened. He says he might know a few good attorneys, associated with some…Massive Dynamic company. That isn't to say that I don't regret what I did…" _

_The Walter in the video was having difficultly keeping his composure. "Belly and I knew the risks of working with children, and we took every precaution to ensure their safety. But it does take the loss of one…to change everything. We made a mistake. The other side was not safely cleared for Olive's travel as we originally assumed. She panicked…the fear jump-started her abilities…not the good ones though. By the time we were able to get a clear picture…she was…no longer there."_

"_These bruises…" said Walter as revealed his purple frail neck to the camera. "Are from the vengeful hands of that little girl's father after I had to tell him…"_

_The tears began to fall then._

"_Olive…I'm so sorry. Belly believes you may have been killed. But I being the foolish one, thought you might still be alive…that you might have been taken. In any case…he said he would go and search for you. I just hope we are successful. I'm…sorry…"_

_The tape ended._

…

The next day Peter returned to St. Claire's to see Mr. Sumner again. He was not happy to see him.

"Mr. Bishop, the last time I granted you a request it caused a lot of damage to my institution. It was a miracle no one was seriously injured. What could you possibly want from me now?"

"Actually," said Peter. "I'm here to relieve you. I would like to sign out my father…and take him home."


	7. Chapter 7

Walter's excitement was getting the better of him. And Peter, while having never having a high tolerance for his father, generously picked up some licorice and apple pies for him at just about every gas station he had to stop at…until they finally arrived at Harvard.

"Where are we going, Peter?"

"To your lab."

"Oh wonderful."

"Yeah…but I gotta warn you. It's not in a pleasant, functioning shape."

Later they arrived in the lab and Walter kept ordering Peter to get some machinery set up.

"Will you stop that, Walter? That's not what I brought you here for."

"What other purpose is there?"

"I brought you here because…you were right…about Olivia."

"Oh," said Walter. "It's good to be right in the mind."

"Yeah, well I also need your help. Since you claimed to have…" Peter shuddered at the thought. "…experimented on her…you're the only one who remembers where she came from. Don't you know her family?"

"I…"

"Yeah?"

Walter spaced out for the longest time.

"Hello?"

"Oh…," said Walter. "Root beer."

"What?"

"We forgot to pick up root beer. I could really use a root beer float."

"Dammit Walter. We're not talking about root beer. We're talking about Olivia!"

"Son, if I remembered anything I would tell you."

Peter was shocked. "You mean, you don't remember? What about what you said at St. Claire's?"

"Come again?"

"Forget it!" Peter angrily went about shifting through files while Walter took enjoyment in uncovering the tarps of his old devices. "Oh I remember this…" said Walter. "I'm most excited to get this old tank started again."

"I didn't bring you here to resurrect your old lab, Walter."

"You never know when it might come in handy, son."

Peter pulled out an old folder from a drawer labeled 'Project Redemption'. In it, he found various files featuring pictures of children. And finally, he found one that had the name Olivia Dunham…and the face of the little girl from the video.

"Walter…"

He placed the file under his father's nose.

"What is this, son?"

"It's her file. But I expect you don't remember anything about this."

Walter looked at the girl in the file…only to shed a tear.

"It…" he said. "It hurts to remember…"

…

The next couple of days were spent trying to keep Walter occupied in the hotel room they were sharing while Peter looked up possible relatives of Olivia. It was a good thing he had connections. But most of the information he got back from them was not good.

Both of Olivia Dunham's parents were dead.

This made Peter mad to hear. He couldn't imagine how devastated her parents must've been to learn that his own father was responsible for the loss of their child. And now they would never have the reunion they were meant to have.

Worse was that his father never really paid for what he did. The mental institution wasn't a well enough punishment for something that almost became murder. Many times, Peter had wished that Walter had gone to jail.

There was only one possible living relative, but it was hard to pinpoint their exact current location…

…all he had was a possible cell phone number.

He became nervous as hell when the he dialed the number. He didn't even know why he had reason to be nervous.

A young woman picked up on the other end. "Hello?"

"Yeah…I'm looking for Rachel Dunham."

"Speaking."

"Rachel Dunham? You used to live in Jacksonville, Florida? When you were a child?"

The other side of the phone went silent. "…yeah I did? Um…what's this about?"

"You use to have an older sister? Olivia Dunham?"

"Yeah but she…I don't know what happened to her. It was so long ago. Who is this anyway?"

"Peter Bishop," he said nervously. "I'm calling from Boston. I know you're not gonna believe this but…Olivia is here…in Boston. Your sister's alive."

Peter could swear he heard a thud? "Hello?" he said. "Hello?"

"I…," said Rachel, unable to collect her thoughts. "I have a sister?"

"Yeah."

"And…I can go and see her?"

"Well, it's a complicated situation," said Peter. "But if you come to Boston, I can explain everything."

…

Walking down the halls of St. Claire's Peter could see Rachel Dunham getting more and more stiff as the two walked by several mental patients on their way to the cafeteria…where Mr. Sumner said Olivia would be waiting for them.

"Something wrong?" Peter asked her.

"It's just that…I think a mental hospital is the last place I expected to reunite with a family member."

Peter laughed.

"What's so funny?"

Peter calmed down. "Trust me…I know how it feels. Really."

"This place is really creeping me out."

"I know…" he said. "The doctors say she's dangerous, but I know you can help her. Maybe not with remembering, but…I think you have a better chance of reaching out to her…better than I did. If you just get to know her, you'd see that she doesn't deserve to be here. Right now…you're her only chance of getting her out."

"Well…," Rachel said finally putting her hand on the door that would take her into the cafeteria. "…I'm just glad Ella isn't here to see this."

"Ella?"

"My daughter."

Rachel entered the dark hollow cafeteria and saw guards everywhere. There were also a few orderlies and other patients around and it only made Rachel much more nervous. She was ready to turn around and bolt out the door with every step she took.

She saw one woman sitting by herself fiddling with her fingers. Rachel could see the eerie resemblance to herself…the blonde hair, the eyes.

The thing that terrified Rachel the most was that this sad looking woman might attack her unprovoked. But in the end, she could not resist at least checking her out to see what kind of person she was.

Even as she stood over her, Olivia continued to look down, more focused on her thumbs.

"Hi," said Rachel. "Your name's Olivia, right?"

Olivia didn't respond.

"I use to have a sister name Olivia. They said she…or you…got lost in the Everglades or something. I dunno. I thought maybe you might've been kidnapped."

Finally, Olivia looked up and Rachel took her cue to sit down across from her. "I found some old pictures…loaded them up on my phone. I don't really remember a whole lot myself. I was only a baby."

Rachel pulled out her phone and show Olivia one picture. It was one of a little girl, sitting on a couch and happily holding a pinkish newborn baby in her lap and smiling at the camera.

Olivia pointed to the little girl holding the newborn. "Is that you?"

"No," Rachel giggled. "That's you. I'm the pink one. That was a few days after mom brought me home from the hospital."

An awkward silence occurred between them after bringing up the word 'mom'. Rachel checked her phone again. "I might have something of her in here."

She then showed Olivia a picture in a backyard setting. Off to the side was a blond woman looking at two little girls who resembled her. Olivia stared at the woman for a long time. She saw a woman just like her…in the flashbacks she was having, the same one who would kiss her goodnight. She looked nothing like the mother who raised her, the one back in her world.

Rachel pulled up another picture but it was just a simple picture of the two little girls watching cartoons in a living room.

And even though the picture had no real significance, Olivia could help but stare at this one for a really long time. It was the TV in the picture. Something about the TV hit a chord with her. "Eeyore."

"What?"

"I don't know," said Olivia. "Something about that name…really bothered me. Not that it was bad but…it was…just stupid I guess."

Something began to click in both of their minds.

"No wait," said Rachel. "Tell me. What bothered you about 'Eeyore'?"

"It was…something I heard…no…something I was called. And I hated it but…"

"Mom and dad…" said Rachel. "…they laughed! They thought it was funny that…"

Olivia eyes widened. "It was you. You kept calling me 'Eeyore' for months, because I called you…"

"'Tigger'." Rachel smiled. "You called me 'Tigger'!"

Without even thinking, Rachel reached out and held Olivia's hand. The words just came out of Olivia's mouth without even thinking as if she knew what to say and could do no wrong by them.

She then got up and went over to Rachel's side. Without throwing up, without panic or confusion, she could recall the little toddler she used to chase after on the sunny Florida beach…and then would attempt to bury in a giant pile. She knew of the girl's fondness for pink from the little frilly dresses she wore, to the bed that occupied the other side of her bedroom.

What Olivia didn't realize was as she was getting lost in her own memories, she was shaking and crying…in the midst of a rebirth of her former self.

"Rachel?"

Rachel smile went wide and she was struggling to hold herself back. "Livvy." Finally, she broke and wrapped her arms around her. "Oh my god…"

When Peter finally came in he was stunned by what he saw. The two girls were crying as they tightly embraced each other. He could barely tell the two of them apart.

They truly were sisters.

And with that, Peter walked away and returned to his hotel.


	8. Chapter 8

Mr. Sumner was not comfortable with what he was doing at all.

"Ms. Dunham, before you sign these release papers, I urge you to consider what you're doing. Cases like your sister…don't recover for a long time. And sometimes they never live to. She'll need you to take care of her. You haven't seen what I saw in Olivia during her first days here. Whatever happens to Olivia outside of this facility…you're going to be the one responsible. Just think about that."

With the words playing like a loop in her head, Rachel continued to fiddle with the pen in her hand. She didn't know what she was doing. Yet, she wanted more than anything now, to get her sister out of this place. She just didn't know if she could handle taking care of her and Ella on top of everything else in her life. But coming here, and seeing Olivia for the first time in 25 years, made it almost impossible for her to turn away now.

There was no hiding the shaking as she signed her name on the papers.

Outside the office, Olivia sat there looking sane and proper, and when she saw Rachel, she was actually happy.

Rachel took her sister's hand. "I drove here from New York. I hope you're not prone to car sickness."

…

In the car, Olivia was surprisingly silent. Her eyes were more transfixed on the window, almost in marvel at all the places and roads and buildings she was looking at for the first time. There were no giant amber domes or scorched trees in this countryside. Everything seemed nice and alive. Even the skies weren't as gray and dark here as they were in the New York she knew.

"Do you mind if I ask…how did you meet Peter?"

"Peter?"

"Yeah, I mean he did a lot to find me and I haven't been an easy person to track down for the past couple of years. He must really care about you."

Olivia didn't know if she could tell Rachel everything about her past. She wasn't prepared for that. It was clear that this was a different world and anything she told Rachel wasn't going to sound very sane. She was already crazy enough.

"I was actually looking for him."

"Oh?"

"It was…" Olivia tried to think. "It was part of my job. One of my assignments was to look for him. I met him and then just as I was about to bring him to where I needed to…all of this happened. That's all I can remember really."

"He does seem like a nice guy."

Olivia went quiet. "I feel bad…"

"Don't worry," said Rachel. "He said he would keep in touch."

A couple of hours later, Olivia agreed to let Rachel take a detour. They arrived in a small town and parked near a church. They then hiked through a cemetery. It was Rachel who led the way. She immediately knew where to go.

And finally they stopped on top of a small hill surrounded by trees. It was almost as if the forest had overpowered the cemetery.

"Here."

She pointed over to the large marble gravestone. When Olivia walked over, she could see that the gravestone wasn't for one person…it was for two…

…and both names on the grave shared the same last name: Dunham.

Olivia kneeled down by the stone and looked over the dates. Both of her true parents had died when she was very young and was being raised in the other world without any awareness of her true circumstances. How could have lived this long without knowing the truth?

She turned her sights away from the grave and wept.

"Livia?"

Rachel placed a hand on her sister's shoulder.

Slightly above a whisper, Olivia spoke "It's my fault."

"No, it's not, Olivia. You know, mom always had faith that…wherever you were…you were still alive. She never gave up hope, not even when she was on her deathbed. Dad wasn't so strong. But that doesn't matter. You were only a little girl."

"But I don't know anything," said Olivia. "I don't even know if I was kidnapped or brainwashed. The past couple of days in that cell I haven't slept. I've had all of these conflicting memories torturing me. I don't even know who I am anymore."

Rachel wrapped her arms around her sister. "It's okay. You must've been through an awful lot. I wouldn't know what to ask you."

Olivia whispered, "I just wish I knew what to do now."

"Well," said Rachel. "I know the first thing we need to do is to get you out of those awful clothes. You're better than these hospital rags."

…

Once they got to New York, the first thing Rachel did was take Olivia shopping. Olivia had done some shopping with her 'mother' before…but not for colorful clothes.

In fact this may have been the first time in Olivia's life that she had ever worn pink.

And when they got to Rachel's apartment, Olivia got her hair trimmed.

"I dunno about this," said Olivia. "I've never had my hair this short before."

"Not even to your shoulders? Were you a hippie?"

"No, I just wasn't into styling my hair. My mother would braid it when I was younger but that was it…" She stopped herself. "Oh…I meant my…"

"Your other mom?" said Rachel. "It's okay, Liv. My daughter Ella, practically has two moms. There's me, her REAL mom, and then there's Greg's current woman or whoever he's screwing around with in Chicago right now."

"You mean, you two are divorced?"

Rachel nodded her. "Never married, though we talked about it a lot but we were both just reckless kids when he knocked me up in college. I ended up dropping out that semester, of course. Did you ever go?"

"No…," said Olivia. "I wanted to, but my…father…said he needed me to work on other things."

"You mean like a family business?"

"Something like that."

Rachel looked at the clock. "Perfect timing. You're looking good and Ella should be home from school any minute." She then headed to the front door of her townhouse to greet Ella as she was just being dropped off from school.

"Hi mommy."

"Ella, there's someone I want you to meet."

Olivia was standing by in the hallway watching them.

The little girl became intrigued. "Ella, this your Aunt Olivia. She's going to be staying with us."

"Really?" said Ella. She ran up to Olivia. "You do look like mommy. Are you two sisters?"

Olivia smiled and decided to play along with the child's curiosity. "Yes, I'm her older sister actually."

Ella looked suspicious. "How come I've never seen you before?"

Both Rachel and Olivia were speechless. And then Rachel's cell phone ring. "Ella, why don't you entertain your Aunt Liv for a bit."

The little girl was excited as she took Olivia's hand. "Come with me, Aunt Liv. I'll show you my room." And she led Olivia away.

…

**Back at St. Claire's**

A man approached Mr. Sumner's office and didn't bother to knock on the door.

"What's this about?" the director asked.

The man stood over him looking very threatening. "I'm looking for a patient of yours here, a woman named Olivia."

"And what business do you have with her?"

"I'm an uncle of hers, and I've come to take her home."

"That's not possible," Mr. Sumner said. "She was released from our facility this morning…by her sister."

The man put a blade to Mr. Sumner's throat. "Where can I find them?"

"That's…" Mr. Sumner panicked. "…classified."

"Pity."

In less than a second, Mr. Sumner's throat was slashed and he fell to the floor dead.

The man quickly go on Mr. Sumner's computer. While looking at the patient list, he was intrigued to find that one of the patients at this facility was one Walter Bishop and looked over his file. He then found Olivia's information and it said who released her but unfortunately no address.

It didn't matter though, he would find them soon enough.

…

**Other World**

"Message from Newton, Mr. Secretary."

The Secretary took the paper and read it.

'_Olivia has been compromised. Claimed by relative. Awaiting orders.'_

The Secretary began to fume with anger. Apparently his daughter must've known the truth or at least was on her way to knowing the truth. She was betraying her world…worse yet, betraying her own mother. This would surely crush Elizabeth's heart. For now he decided that she could not know.

"Tell Newton to find her," he said. "But do not act until I give the order."

* * *

_**Sorry, no Peter in this chap but the next one: I promise. And other characters will be coming into play. Tune in and see if P/O happens as well. ;)**_

_**In the meantime I will soon start a nonAU P/O fic. I know, right?**_


	9. Chapter 9

Walter had finally watched the video involving 'Project Redemption' and the memories began to haunt him badly.

"_I have good news, Walter. I've located her."_

_He remembered being so excited about the news given by William Bell. It was the happiest he felt since being arrested in connection to the little girl's disappearance. "Oh that's wonderful! And she's alive?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Oh, even better. We must inform her parents right away."_

"_We can't, Walter. I think she may have been compromised," said William. "Your alternate has her. He's claiming Olivia to be his own daughter"._

_Walter cried. "So it's revenge, then? I didn't think taking Peter from them would come back to haunt me so soon."_

"_I know, Walter. They've been giving her a mind control drug that they call Xerotichin. I believe the compounds in the drugs allow it to block the Cortexiphan in Olivia's bloodstream. I have a few samples that are being looked at back at Massive Dynamic. Walternate knows that she crossed over from our world and they plan to use her when she's older to get back at us."_

"_Can we not go back for her?"_

"_I'm afraid not, Walter," William said. "It's too dangerous. She must travel back here on her own. But I can cross over, and keep a close watch on the situation." At that moment, a warden came by and William knew his prison conference with Walter was up. _

"_Listen to me," said William. "Nina will be coming to the hearing tomorrow to testify. But the prosecution is trying to add murder to the kidnapping charge if you get convicted."_

"_But if little Olive is alive…"_

"_I can only do what I can, Walter. At the very least, you might have to plea insanity. It's the only viable option, Walter. We can't afford to lose you…and neither can Peter."_

"_Please," Walter pleaded. "When you go over…make sure she's safe. If something happens to her over there I can never forgive myself."_

"_I will, Walter."_

Walter couldn't stop crying as he told Peter the whole story (minus some details regarding Peter).

"Walter," said Peter. "What happened after that?"

"Belly's lawyers did the trick. I was acquitted and freed of all charges. But it didn't stop there. The little girl's parents had been sending me threats for weeks, more lawsuits and charges by the dozen. But they were right to do so…The guilt affected my life…the way I raised you…and then the lab explosion happened that resulted in me going to St. Claire's."

Peter assured Walter. "It's over now, Walter. I called her sister today and she took Olivia home. She's doing fine."

Walter smiled. "Was that all you needed me for, son?"

"Yeah," said Peter. "I got the whole 'she went to another universe and got kidnapped' stuff. There's still just one missing piece left in the puzzle though…" Peter then pulled out a strange device and placed it by his father.

Walter fiddled around with the remote device until he saw '100% match – Peter Bishop'.

"She was looking for me," said Peter. "She came back to this universe to look for me. The question now is why?"

"I…"

"Do you know something, Walter?"

"Hey!" The men turned around and saw what look like two cops entering the lab. "How the hell did you two get in here? This is private property."

"Why no, you must have it all wrong," said Walter has he greeted the two men. "This is my old lab, and my son was recently kind enough to…"

Peter hurried over to pull Walter away. "Shut up, Walter!"

One of the men approached them. "Walter? As in Walter Bishop?"

"Why yes," said Walter. "How do you do?"

The man showed his badge. "Agent Broyles, F.B.I. We've been looking for you Walter and need you to come with us."

Peter tried to stop them. "Whoa, whoa! What is this about?"

"Your Doctor Bishop's son? You released him from St. Claire's a few days ago?"

"Yeah?"

"The director of the facility, Mr. Sumner was found dead this morning, and we believe whoever murdered him maybe looking for Doctor Bishop."

…

When Ella woke up this morning, she was excited about introducing her Aunt Olivia to her mom's famous pancakes. At least, she liked to call them famous.

As she approached the guest room where Olivia was sleeping, Ella heard some strange noises.

"No…please…"

Ella could hear her aunt tossing and turning in the bed. She saw as she entered the room her aunt thrashing her arms around in the bedsheets and crying softly

"I want my mommy and daddy."

This was starting to scare Ella but curiosity got the best of her and Ella crept more towards the bed.

"Aunt Liv?" Ella was shaking. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

She then reached an arm to touch her Aunt Liv.

"NO!"

Olivia's arm collided with Ella's pushing her back and Olivia shot up awake, her face soaking in sweat. Ella was whimpering.

Hearing the cries, Rachel hurried into the room. "Ella, you okay? What happened?"

She turned and saw Olivia sitting up in the bed, looking deadly pale.

Ella pointed at Olivia. "Aunt Liv had a bad dream."

Rachel was starting to get scared as she saw Ella rubbing her arm. Was this the danger that Mr. Sumner warned her about? What if Olivia was just a walking time bomb in her home? Would she harm Ella? All these thoughts ran through her mind, and she knew this would definitely not be good if Greg knew she had let a dangerous mental patient into her home, and near Ella…even if that mental patient was family.

She quickly led her daughter out of the room. "Come on, Ella. Let's give your Aunt Liv some space. She can join us when she's ready."

…

Peter and Walter were taken by Broyles to a large office in the FBI building. "This is our Fringe Division a secret branch of the Department of Homeland Security. We investigate crimes that are connected to fringe science, the type that Doctor Bishop was notorious for before being sent to St. Claire's."

Walter smiled. "You hear that, son? These people have heard of me."

"Doctor Bishop, we have reason to believe you might be in danger and because of your connection to this division, you've been labeled a top priority in protection. There's also something else."

"Something else?" asked Peter.

"We watched the security footage. The man who murdered Mr. Sumner cannot be identified. However, he was looking for one other person…not just Doctor Bishop but another person of interest."

"Who?"

"A woman name Olivia."

"Oh," said Walter. "Our friend who started the fire."

"We identified the woman as Olivia Dunham. According to police records, however, Dunham was reported as a missing person since 1985. She was only five years old. And you Doctor Bishop, you were arrested in possible connection to the case, weren't you?"

Walter looked down. "Yes, I was."

"We're trying to get in contact with your partner William Bell. We have some questions to ask him about the experiments you two worked on together in Jacksonville, Florida."

"It's been so long, since I've heard from them."

"We've got our guys looking," said Broyles.

A woman came by with a large box. "I think this is what you're looking for."

"Thank you Agent Farnsworth," said Broyles.

"Young lady," said Walter. "Did you get those things from my lab? I don't believe you have a key! Peter, this woman broke into my lab!"

"Doctor Bishop! I had to send my agents to your lab to get all the information we need for this investigation." Broyles looked over the box and found the video labeled 'Project Redemption'. "I hope you're prepared to answer some questions for me."

For the next couple of hours, Walter using the best he could of his failing memory explained to Broyles about the idea of dual universes and how he and William Bell experimented on children, including Olivia, with the ability to travel between the two universes with Cortexiphan. He then talked about the incident in which Olive was lost and Broyles watched the video.

"So Olivia's loyalty is to the other side?" said Broyles. "This might make the situation dangerous when we do find her. Do we have a reason why she came back here?"

"Yeah" said Peter and he tossed the remote device he showed to Walter earlier. "For me."

Broyles looked at the device. "Can you explain this Doctor Bishop?"

But before he said anything, Peter spoke. "Hold it. I think I got it. If Olivia was raised by an alternate version of…Walter here on their side, and they're looking for me. It's likely that he had a version of me…probably lost him and is now using another child he kidnapped to kidnap me. I know it must sound the most ridiculous explanation in the world, but I've known a lot of women who do crazy things like kidnapped other children and take them as their own."

"It's the best theory we got now," said Broyles. "But we still need to find Olivia Dunham. So far we only know she was released by her sister hours before Mr. Sumner's murder, but we cant seem to track them."

Peter sighed. "I can find them for you."

"You can?"

"But she's not going to cooperate with us if we barge in on her. I think I can convince her if you let me go in alone. I need you to trust me on this."

Broyles looked at him. "We'll try it your way, then."

* * *

**Yeah, I know this a bit fillery and a bit rushed (I didnt know how I was gonna reintroduced the Fringe Division and get everyone to speed on what was going on without writing a billion new chapters). Next chapter Peter sees Olivia again so squee for that. Only problem though is that I'm in the middle of a major house cleaning and I want to start on my new P/O fic that I strictly wanna write for hiatus only so expect slower updates to start happening either now or next chapter. **


	10. Chapter 10

Rachel kept a close eye on Olivia that day. Aside from the early morning scare, there was that odd eccentric behavior that Olivia had as she looked at some old photos of herself…when she was a child in this world, and not the one she was raised in.

But things got calm later in the day when Rachel reluctantly left Ella in Olivia's care. When she returned from her quick trip to the store, she was surprised to see Olivia in better spirits as she was playing a board game with Ella.

"Want some coffee, Liv?"

Olivia looked up in surprise. "You have coffee?"

Rachel laughed. "Who doesn't? Money's been tight so I had to get the cheap store brand but it should still taste as good."

"Wow," said Olivia. "Well, yes. Definitely."

While Olivia was savoring her cup of coffee, the doorbell rang and Rachel went to answer.

"Peter! Oh my god. What a surprise!"

Olivia walked over to the door and took a peak at Rachel hugging Peter. She was just as surprised, not by Peter's unannounced arrival, but by Rachel hugging her.

"What brings you all the way here, Peter?"

"Just came by to see and how you and Olivia are doing."

"You know, it's not bad at all. She's been really helpful around the house. And Ella is really warming up to her. Olivia almost acts like a sane person around her."

Olivia felt really hurt by that statement…really hurt. But then could she blame Rachel after everything that's happened. In this world, the one that's supposed to be her true home, Olivia was a freak. She didn't know if she wanted to listen in on anymore.

She then heard Peter ask "is she here? I need to talk to her about something."

That's when Olivia pushed open the kitchen door and entered the living room with a very listless look. "Hey."

"Hey." Peter had a good look at her. She wasn't the long hair, disturbed woman that Peter saw in St. Claire's. Her hair was cut neatly to her shoulders, and she wore a nice blue top. She still wasn't wearing much makeup though. "You look good," said Peter.

Olivia barely muttered a "thanks."

Peter got up. "Are you up for a drive?"

Olivia looked at Rachel and she gave a nod of approval to let her go.

Peter drove Olivia a bit of ways into the city and as much like before, Olivia was stunned by the tall skyscrapers that stood freely in downtown Manhattan. Aside from the constant misspelling of the word she saw throughout the city, Olivia saw something else that was rather unusual about this version of 'Manhatan'.

"Your towers are pretty short," she said. "Don't you have the twin towers? The tall ones?"

"Long story with that one." Peter said no more about that.

The two of them entered Central Park and now Olivia was getting confused as to why he would take her out this far. But then he pulled out a picnic basket and a blanket from the back seat of his car.

"Ever been on a picnic before?" He asked.

Olivia tried to think back. She might've taken one on the beach as a baby, but she wasn't sure. "I don't think so."

"Wow." Peter laid out the food and Olivia was shocked that he brought turkey sandwiches for the both of them.

"Olivia," said Peter. "I'm really sorry you had to go through all of this. I really am."

"It's okay," she said. "I don't even know what's going to happen now. But at least I'm still not in the crazy house…" Olivia tried to be playful about it but then the sudden fear that Rachel might send her back was starting to scare her.

"Walter thinks that you suffered withdrawal from the drugs you were given and that's what caused it. The memories…"

"My father was right," said Olivia. "He made sure I took those pills every single day and not once would he let me see for myself what would happened even if missed…"

"That man kidnapped you," said Peter. "He gave you those drugs so you wouldn't remember that he kidnapped you from here."

"But what about the fire?"

"That was from something Walter gave you. Cortexiphan. If he hadn't given that to you when you lived in Jacksonville, then none of this would've happened."

"So…," said Olivia. "I was never sick." Olivia looked around at all the people who were happily mingling in the park. The Central Park back in the other world wasn't half as nice as this and all she could think about now were the things she had missed out on. This place was her home and she had been away from it her whole life. The people here seemed happier too.

To think what her life would've been like if she had lived here.

"Hey." Peter placed a hand over hers and Olivia could feel her heart pacing. "This isn't your fault. None of it is."

Olivia calmed down and looked into Peter's eyes. She could be happy now that Peter wasn't her brother. "Thank you…I'm glad I met you in Iraq."

"Same here," said Peter. "There's just one more thing, Olivia. I need to know why you came back here."

Looking at Peter, Olivia didn't know what to do. She could spill everything to Peter about how he was abducted by a man who resembled 'father' when he was suffering from illness. But then Olivia feared that Peter would have to endure everything she did from the revelation of her own past. The pain, the loneliness, the betrayal, and the emptiness that came with no longer having a place to belong. She didn't want to put him through that. Not after everything he did for her.

"It's…I don't even understand why. My father thinks that you're important and he knew I was the best person to come and find you."

"But why would he want me?" he asked her. "How did he know about me?" 

Olivia kept silent. Peter just took it as 'she didn't know'.

…

Later, Peter pulled up to Rachel's townhouse but another car was already parked there. He didn't think anything of it and neither did Olivia.

"I go back to Boston tomorrow. Walter's waiting for me. Rachel has my number if you need to talk about anything."

"Okay," said Olivia. "Thank you."

Peter drove away as Olivia walked up to the door but heard some disturbing noises from inside the house.

"Just what the hell were you thinking?" She heard a man yell.

"Greg, she's my sister. I couldn't just leave her there."

"I don't care if she's related to you! You were completely out of your mind to bring a crazy person into your house…and near Ella!"

"But she's not hurting anybody!"

"For all you know, she could be a psychopathic killer. Did you ever bother to ask her about her life? Either that woman leaves or I'm taking Ella out of here!"

Olivia started to cry. Without having touched the doorknob at all, she turned around and started walking away.

No one was aware that Ella, hiding from the loud fighting between her parents, saw Olivia leave from her bedroom window. She crept downstairs as Rachel and Greg continued to argue. Then, she snuck out the back door and went around the house. She nearly bumped into a creepy stranger standing outside as she hurried down the street to catch up with Olivia.

"Aunt Liv! Wait up!"

Olivia didn't hear her until she was several blocks away. The little girl became exhausted as she finally caught up with her.

"Ella? What are you doing out here?"

"Please don't run away, Aunt Liv," she said, almost crying. "I don't think you're crazy."

Olivia got on eye level with the little girl. "Thank you, baby. But your father's right. I don't belong here and I'm afraid I'll only get you hurt."

"But mommy said you're family."

"I know but it's not enough to be family to earn someone's trust."

"Oh," said Ella. "But I trust you and mommy trusts you."

"That's so nice of you to say, Ella." Olivia could feel a chill down her spine and notice that the sun was setting. She took Ella's hand and started walking with her back the way she came. "Come on. I better get you home."

When they got back to the townhouse, the streetlights came on but there weren't any lights on inside.

Greg's car was still outside though.

Olivia carefully walked with Ella up to the door and found it propped open.

"Ella, stay behind me." Olivia slowly opened the door and found everything in darkness. But she looked down at the floor and saw a small blood trail leading into the living room. She poked her head in and gasped.

A man was lying in the living room face down in a pool of blood.

"Daddy?"

Olivia pushed Ella back into the hallway. "We have to get out of here."

But suddenly they heard a banging from the hallway closet. A banging that got loud and repetitive. Olivia went ahead of Ella towards the closet. She had nothing for defense, but she felt confident for some reason that she could handle whatever was beyond that door.

She opened it quickly.

Rachel was inside tied up in ropes with duct tape over her mouth.

"Mommy!"

Ella sped into the closet and took the duct tape off of Rachel's mouth. Her eyes went wide.

"Liv! Behind you!"

Olivia turned around coming face to face with Newton and the last thing she was aware of at that moment was Ella's scream.


	11. Chapter 11

Olivia was knocked to the ground but she was still conscious. Newton looked down on her with disappointment written all over his face. "You've been causing a lot of trouble in this reality, Olivia. I would hate to have you responsible for any more damage." He then turned his gun to the frightened mother and daughter in the closet.

"No! Please! They're my family!"

Newton lowered his gun.

"Your family?" He laughed at her. "Your father is not going to be happy to hear that from you. Now get up!"

Newton tried to pull Olivia up from the ground but from out of nowhere, she grabbed his arm.

"He's NOT my father!"

With a sudden surge of strength running through her, Olivia threw Newton to the ground. But he struck back hard. Olivia was fighting like a pro and Newton knew exactly why.

He managed to pull out a taser and stabbed Olivia. Ella screamed again as her aunt was now on the ground unconscious.

"You two." Newton waved the gun back at Ella and Rachel. "I'd stay in that closet if I were you." He then shut the door on the two girls and then he placed a timed lock over the doorknob and set it to one hour.

He picked up Olivia and carried her outside. "This is Newton," he spoke into his earpiece. "I have Olivia and we're on our way to the extraction point."

"Excellent. Exchange should happen at 6pm sharp and this time make sure she's with you."

On the other end of the line, the Secretary watched from across the street of a building called Massive Dynamic as he saw for the first time in 25 years, his son Peter, in the flesh.

…

Inside of Massive Dynamic, Peter was meeting with Broyles giving him a full report on what happened in his meeting with Olivia. Even Walter and Astrid were there.

"I wasn't able to get much more out of her," said Peter. "All she said was that I was important."

Walter was shifting nervously in his chair.

"Are you sure we can't get her to come in and tell us more?" asked Broyles.

"Not unless you want her to burn down the entire F.B.I. headquarters."

Shortly upon leaving the meeting, Walter approached Peter. "Son, do you think we could talk?"

"What a…" Suddenly Peter's phone rang. "Hold on a second, Walter."

"But Peter…"

Seeing that the call was from Rachel, Peter was quick to pick it up. "Hey…Calm down. What happened?"

The hysterical cries on the other end were so loud people around Peter stopped to listen. "I'll be right over, hang on."

Peter ran back to Broyles' office. "Olivia's gone!"

Almost instantly, the entire group traveled to Rachel's townhouse, now a swarming mess of police, F.B.I. and yellow tape surrounding it.

Greg was dead. But Rachel knew it was best to not let Ella realize this fact just yet and made sure that she didn't see the body bag that her father was being carried in while trying to give her report to the police at the same time.

"Bishop, you might wanna come over here."

Peter approached Broyles who was with the sketch artist drawing a description of the attacker as best as Rachel could describe him.

"It looks like the man who killed Sumner."

In frustration, Peter stormed outside to take a breather. With the information they got from Rachel, it was clear that Olivia was going to be sent back to the other side against her own will and there was no way to locate her.

He looked up and saw a familiar face among the onlookers beyond the yellow tape.

Standing there, in a dark well-dressed suit, was Walter.

But that was impossible. Peter turned back towards the house and saw the Walter he knew, in his regular beige slacks and that horrendous gray sweater, chatting it up with a police officer.

He looked back and saw the well-dressed man disappear pass the crowds. And Peter quickly leapt over the police barriers to follow him.

This mystery man was fast and every time Peter was close to catching up with him, the man would suddenly disappear and reappear from view. Peter finally turned a corner into a dark alley and the man stopped.

"You!"

The man turned and said nothing.

"Where is she?" growled Peter. "Where's Olivia?"

"She's gone home," said the man. "And now so will you, son." The man pulled out an unusual laser that struck Peter in the chest and knocked him unconscious.

…

Olivia was struggling to wake up. The pillows were so comfortable and her head was so dizzy. But the light outside her window was getting brighter. She then realized that she wasn't in the same bed she had been sleeping in. Yet something about it was so familiar.

When she finally got up, it was almost as if she had woken from a long dream. She was back in her own bedroom, the one she had been sleeping in for nearly 25 years.

She was in the same dull gray pajamas she had been accustomed too and the walls were the same all drab and lifeless as they always were.

On her desk was Pumpkin's cage but the rabbit, for some strange reason, was not inside. Perhaps he was free hopping around somewhere. But then Olivia noticed that the cage had been cleaned out. No more bedding. No more food.

It was clear now that Pumpkin had died.

A flood of emotions began to hit her then. Nothing was real to her anymore. This room wasn't real. And just as she suspected, she pulled opened her bedroom curtains and found the window barred with iron from the outside.

They had always been like this and yet, it never occurred to her how significant the bars were. _From her window, she had a beautiful view of the beach and off in the distance, she had often watched the children playing and wished that she could join them but the medicine she was being given drained her of all her energy._

"_Olive." She turned to find her father standing at her doorway in his typical upset and frightening tone. She was seven and by then had associated her father's coldness as typical of him. "What are you doing out of bed?"_

_She quickly got under the covers of her bed even though it was too late. But instead of being crossed with her, he merely went over to her window with a cardboard carrier in hand and shut the curtains. "One day Olive, you will see that the thing you desire the most can give you the least satisfaction of all." Even at her young age, Olivia knew what he meant, but refused to believe him._

_"I have a gift for you." She watched as her father pulled open the cardboard carrier and her eyes widened in wonder. In his hands was a small brown rabbit with scattered bald spots throughout. The rabbit had very sickly red eyes but the creature was enough to get Olivia excited. Her father placed the rabbit in her arms. "This is a special rabbit, Olive. I have especially designed him to live for a very long time, so you'll never lose him. He'll have a nice little cage to watch you grow up in. And you get to name him whatever you want."_

_Olivia was not good with names. She never knew many people to think of any. She remembered it was Autumn and she longed to go out to the country where the pumpkins were in season. So she thought of only one name. "Pumpkin?"_

_To her surprised, her father chuckled. It was extremely rare to see him do that. "An unusual name but if that is what you wish…" Her father was hesitant at first but seeing how happy Olivia was with her new pet, he leaned over and kissed her on her forehead. "Sweet dreams, little Olive. You'll want to be well rested for your tutor tomorrow."_

_Even then, Olivia showed some slight resentment of her father but having Pumpkin in her arms was enough to keep her happy and compliant with the man._

Now she despised herself for being such a fool.

Fuming with anger, Olivia quickly emptied her shelves in a fell swoop. Old trophies, books, and pictures where carelessly thrown out of their place and broke in pieces to the floor. Every single thing in this place was a lie. The picture of her Christmas at the Plaza Hotel when she was 8: a lie. The 1st place trophy she won at the Junior Equestrian Championships at age 13: another lie. The name on the trophy: Olivia Bishop. The worst lie of them all. She tore in half an old front cover of Time Magazine with her chubby 5-year-old face and the subtitle "Olivia Bishop: Bringing hope in a time of deep sorrow."

She collapsed to the ground in a sobbing mess.

"Olivia?"

At her doorstep, was the woman who was supposed to be her mother, but she might as well be a stranger now. When Elizabeth attempted to approach Olivia to hug her, Olivia shrugged away.

"You knew."

"Darling, I…" But Elizabeth didn't know what to say. "I knew that going over there would expose the truth to you. It's why I didn't want you to go."

Olivia was shaking and the paleness of her skin made her realized that her "father" had drugged her again.

"The drugs," she said. "That's how he kept me from knowing. I was never sick. How could he do this to me? How could you?"

Elizabeth looked up and saw the bottom of the bedroom curtains ignite with fire. She quickly backed away. "Olivia."

The flames spread up the curtains and the fire alarm began to beep. "Go away!"

Elizabeth ignored her and tried to grab Olivia's arm to get her away from the fire. "No!" Olivia screamed. "Go away! You're not my mother!"

Suddenly, someone burst into the room and extinguished the fire with a fire extinguisher. The women looked up and found the Secretary setting down the extinguisher. "Elizabeth," he said. "I wish to speak with my daughter alone."


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm kinda hitting a writer's block snag at this point. Any advice is helpful so please PM me. Also helps if you want to give me tips on how you want P/O (if any) to go...**

**And now I give you chapter 12: it's a dark chapter!

* * *

**

Walter led Elizabeth out of the room and as they got to the door, he whispered the news in her ear.

"The chauffeur's outside. He'll take you to Peter."

Her eyes went wide. But the Secretary said nothing more and Elizabeth hurried outside to get into the limo. She was hesitant about leaving Olivia alone with her father but this could be her only chance to see her son in 25 years.

The limo took her to the lab at Staten Island. Held in a heavily guarded facility, Peter was by himself in a cell. He had woken up hours ago with tubes and needles in his body but those were taken out since then. Guards escorted Elizabeth to her son's cell.

For the longest time the two faced in each other in that confined space in disbelief.

"Peter?"

He looked upon the woman and smiled. "Hey mom."

"Oh."

After they embraced, Peter felt a wave of familiarity take over him, and the truth was laid out before him. "So it's true…I'm from here?"

Elizabeth was wiping away the tears. "Oh, Peter. I'm sorry you had to learn it this way."

"Olivia was right," said Peter. That day in St. Claire's he remembered Olivia saying that HE was the one who was kidnapped, not her. But he didn't believe her then. How could he not see it? They had BOTH been stolen from another world.

"Where is she?" he asked her.

"Peter…"

"We have to go back."

Hearing that broke Elizabeth's heart a little. She had just gotten her son back and all he can think about now was going home. "Mom…I'm sorry," Peter said. "But I…I don't belong here and neither does Olivia."

"She's alright." Elizabeth was really doubting her own words. "She's safe, Peter. I…I never wanted any of this to happen. Your…father felt it was the only way to fill the void when you left. I knew that she'd one day know the truth. I didn't think it would come this soon."

Elizabeth was crying again but Peter reached a hand out to her. "You have to talk to him, mom."

"Peter, you don't understand."

"Whatever he needed me for, tell him I'll do it if he lets us go home."

Their time together was cut short by guards informing Elizabeth that she had to leave. Peter was definitely a different person now. She should have known that she wouldn't have the son back that she lost. But still she loved him. Even now, she would've put his happiness infront of her own…even if it meant losing him once more.

…

Olivia could've set fire to him then. He had some nerve still calling her his daughter after everything. She tried to predict the Secretary's next move only to have him lingering by Pumpkin's empty cage. "He fell ill after you left. Passed on a couple of days ago. But it's nothing to be saddened about. 23 years is an impressively long lifespan for a rabbit. I'll get you a new pet if you wish."

"Oh stop it," Olivia growled. "Stop acting like nothing's changed. You took me…you took me for some twisted act of revenge!"

"Now, Olive." Curse him for calling her that, still. "That's just not true."

"Then what are going to do with me now that I failed to get you your son?"

"Dear child, you did not fail me. Peter is here and in our custody."

Olivia gasped. Peter was here? But how?

"However," said Walter. "You have disappointed me." He walked over behind Olivia and placed a hand on her shoulder. She couldn't move. If she moved even an inch, it would've been enough for her to leap up and kill him. He sighed and said, "I was wrong to think you could complete the mission appropriately. And now you have burdened me with a difficult decision. I could've given you your independence, your freedom to live as you've always wanted."

Olivia feared to ask. "Are you going to kill me now?"

"Believe what you want to of me, Olive. I didn't think that you could fill the void left in the hearts of your mother and I from the loss of Peter. And yet, despite your moments of…defiance, you have proven me wrong. I have loved you, Olive, as if you were truly my own. Even now…I have come to love you more than my own son."

She slipped away from Walter and got up to face him. "You sick twisted bastard. Is this your idea of fatherly love? Keeping me caged up in this house? Giving me an imaginary illness so you could experiment on me? Drugging me every single day? My real father would've never done this!"

"But he did," said Walter. "Tell me, Olive. What kind of father would put their little girl in the hands of a scientist? What kind of father would allow their child to be given the ability to travel to other worlds and risk losing them forever? When you came to this world, I was this close to raising my hand to kill you. But instead, I chose to fix the mistakes of the past. It was better to have you locked away from the outside world. Better to have you under constant guard than to lose another child to 'them'!"

"BUT I DON'T BELONG HERE!"

**SLAP!**

The searing pain of the Secretary's strike made Olivia immobile. She had practically gone limp as he gripped her arms tightly. When she looked into his eyes, she no longer saw the stern serious look of an overprotective father.

What she saw was an over-zealous madman.

"I DECIDE WHAT'S YOUR RIGHTFUL PLACE! I'M THE ONE WHO SPARED YOU AND KEPT YOU ALIVE! I'VE GIVEN YOU EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED AND THAT MAKES YOU **MY** CHILD AND **MY** DAUGHTER! **THAT MAKES YOU MINE!**"

The Secretary released his grip and let Olivia fall to the floor. Olivia could not keep herself together. She had lost her will, her desire to fight back. She couldn't ignite a single spark in the room to end it all.

Fear and pain kept her there, sobbing on the floor as the man who called himself her 'father' stormed out of the room, locking Olivia in.

Elizabeth shortly returned thereafter and found Walter in the sanctuary of his office sitting there with a martini in his hand. He looked unkempt as he had been standing over the fireplace, staring at the same items on the mantle for nearly an hour. On this mantle were two family portraits: one that consisted of the two of them and a little boy on the Secretary's lap. The boy was Peter. And in the other, taken a year later, was a very similar picture, only instead of Peter, a little blond girl was sitting on his lap…his little Olive.

"Walter…he's asking for her."

The Secretary ignored his wife. "I explained everything to him," said Elizabeth. "But he insists on going back. He wants to take Olivia with him."

"And you support his request?"

"I…," Elizabeth was torn. "I don't know. I want Peter to be happy…"

"You want to send him back?" He asked angrily. "Is this how you thank me for bringing back your own son?" He turned and threw his martini glass angrily into the fireplace igniting the flames and sending specks of glass popping within.

The Secretary closed his eyes and reached out to the portrait of the Bishop family with Peter and then turned to toss it in the trashcan. He slumped into his desk chair. "They have corrupted him, Elizabeth, just as I feared. And now he is attempting to corrupt our little girl. He's not the son we had, Elizabeth. Peter is dead to us."

Elizabeth looked at her husband in disbelief. For years she had helplessly witness the slow deterioration of her husband's sanity. The public had no clue that behind their respected Secretary of Defense for 25 years, was a man who had gone mad at the loss of his son…and developed an unquenchable desire for control, for power. And that was what made Olivia special to him, because he was able to control everything about her from the day she first crossed over into this world.

"Walter…"

"Get out!"

Elizabeth, fearing to increase her husband's wrath, quietly left. Walter got another glass of martini. He was feeling bitter toward his wife. Did she not suffer and mourn as he did when Peter was taken from them? Did she not remember how hard they worked to defy the doctors' beliefs that she could never have children all those years?

After all, it was for her that he brought Olive home…at least that's what he told himself. With her abilities, Olive became more than just a daughter to him…she became a prized possession…one that you had to keep locked away in order to be well-preserved and was only brought out to showoff or to treat for further preservation.

But Olive had to grow into an adult and ruin everything. She was no longer blind to the truth and she was fighting to free herself from him. It wasn't over yet. The Secretary would fight to keep her. He would not lose _his_ Olive the same way he had lost Peter.

For years, he had been working on a new drug, one capable of reversing brain development, one that could surely erase the memories of her mission and the years prior to that. If the drug becomes successful, then Olive's mind would deteriorate to that of herself as a child…

And then the Secretary would finally have his little girl back…and this time, he would make sure it was forever.


	13. Chapter 13

**Okay so I'm totally on a roll with this story. Apparently the writer's block snag I'm having is now more severe w/ my other fic "A Harsh Reality". I wanna work on that this week so I'll leave you hanging with this super long chapter and cliffhanger for a while as I play writer's catch-up with AHR.**

**And if you thought that Walternate in the last chapter was whacko and disturbing, then brace yourselves for this chapter…

* * *

**

Peter was slowly losing his mind in that cell, with no idea of the time or a way of getting out. And then he suddenly heard the sound of an alarm in the distance. A minute later his cell door opened, and the one person he least expected stepped in. "Olivia!"

The woman smiled. "Hey, you ready to go or what?"

Peter wasted no time and followed her. "You look different? What happened to you? Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine once we get outta here. I think a know a way to get back."

She quickly pulled Peter down a hall to prevent being seen by guards. "In here." By pure luck, the two of them found a stairway and made it out into a back alley without being seen. They snuck onto the back of a ferryboat bound for Manhatan. Inside of the prison, the security guards had watched the entire escape through their surveillance video and then phoned it in. "Mr. Secretary, Agent Dunham and Peter are on their way to the extraction point."

"Excellent." From his home, the Secretary then phoned another man waiting in an abandoned part of Central Park. "They're on their way. Make sure it's timed to look like Agent Dunham has caused the doorway to open". The Secretary was feeling more and more victorious as his great plan was slowly building to fruition and Peter fell for it. His miraculous escape was staged and the Secretary ordered no pursuit of the two as the woman broke him out of his cell and led him out of the building.

Because the woman who was with Peter right now was not the Olivia Peter knew.

Walter then contacted his assistant Brandon at the lab to inquire about a certain drug. "But Mr. Secretary, the drug's not finished. The stabilizers aren't fully developed yet."

"Can we administer the completed compounds of the drug until then?"

"Yes, but the neural blockage and brain shrinkage won't last very long without the stabilizer."

The Secretary decided he wasn't going to wait to see his perfect vision come true. "We'll give her what we have for now."

"But Mr. Secretary…"

"I'll bring her there in an hour." He hung up. Soon Walter's cronies arrived at his house with a gurney. "In here. Be armed." He led them to Olivia's room where he unlocked the door.

Just as he suspected, Olivia had been hard at work using her own abilities in a desperate attempt to break out of the house. The glass from her bedroom window was completely shattered. Olivia had been using her fire abilities to melt the iron bars that covered the window to no avail. Various items she had tried using to break the iron bars were now all broken and scattered on the floor.

"Stay back!" She threatened. She put all of her will and focus and this time started a massive fire on her bed. It was big enough to turn on the smoke alarm. Suddenly a massive spray of water came from the ceiling. The Secretary had been prepared and had set the sprinkler system in her room to full power. Now soaking wet and distracted, Walter ordered his cronies to pull Olivia out of the room and strap her to the gurney, with her kicking and screaming all the way.

Elizabeth approached her husband. "Walter! What on earth are you doing? Where are you taking her?"

"She's been compromised Elizabeth. She's trying to escape back to the other world to betray us."

"You don't know that, Walter!"

"Look what she did." He pointed his wife to the burnt bedroom. "If we keep her here, she'll destroy all of us." He was deceptively being gentle toward his wife by expressing his own sadness towards the situation. "The lab is the only place I can contain her. You must understand that, Liz. It's better this way."

Elizabeth looked at Olivia all soaked and strapped to the gurney in a helpless defeat. Olivia couldn't even move her own head and so she whimpered "mother."

The Secretary ordered his men to step back. "I'll give you a minute to say goodbye."

But Elizabeth's heart was breaking the moment Olivia called for her. "I'm sorry, mother…"

"No, Olivia. You did nothing wrong. I'm the one... Remember what I told you before you left? I said I would always love you no matter what. I still do, Olivia."

"I love you, too. Mom."

The most Elizabeth could do was hold Olivia's hand and kiss her forehead before the gurney was pulled away and loaded into the van outside. She was powerless to stop her husband and that was enough to break her.

Olivia was brought to the lab and wheeled into a room where she was then strapped onto a CatScan machine. Wires and tubes felt practically drilled into her head. She looked on in horror as she saw the Secretary with a large syringe filled with a strange black-brown liquid. This looked like no drug she had ever been given in all her years in this lab.

"What the hell is that? What are you going to do to me?"

The Secretary smiled. "Just a little something to repair the broken ties between us. Nothing to fear, my Olive. You're going to be better soon." He then injected the liquid and watched it travel through the tubes and into her head. Olivia cried out when she started to feel a burning pain in her skull. The Secretary quietly went over to Brandon who was monitoring the emerging changes in Olivia's brain activity.

"Neuroendocrine functions decreasing. Gray matter increasing…still rising. Frontal and parietal lobes are shrinking. I don't believe this: It's working. The brain development is going backwards."

…

As soon as they arrived in Manhatan, Peter asked, "Olivia, where are we going?"

"Somewhere where I know we can cross back…in Central Park."

"Can you do that? I mean, can you really use your ability to get us back home?"

"That's what they all say," she said. "I just hope it works."

Peter noticed how dark the sky was getting. "It's late. Maybe we should hide somewhere for the night before we no longer see where we're going."

She checked her watch, only a couple of hours to go before she must get Peter to the extraction point and stage the use of this 'ability' she had in order to cross-over. It was getting more and more ridiculous. Just this morning she woke up a regular government agent, and then she was summoned by the Secretary to get the 4-1-1 on an alternate universe and the information she needed to pose as a kidnapped and near psychotic version of herself…all in order to take Peter back and possibly get information on the other world that would give the Secretary the power to destroy it.

"No," she said. "We need to get going before we're caught."

…

An unknown amount of time passed and Olivia was now in a typical looking hospital bed, no straps or tubes. It took her a long time to adjust to her familiar, yet off, surroundings. She looked really confused as she looked at herself. The Secretary had been sitting in a chair watching her the whole time. Her mouth was struggling to make words and then finally one came out. The one he waited so long to hear.

"…Daddy?"

The Secretary smiled. "Yes, Olive?"

Olivia was staring at her arms and legs for very long time. "Why am I so big?"

The Secretary laughed happily. "It's just a growth spurt, my dear. You're growing up so fast."

Filled with hope, she asked, "Am I all better now?"

"Oh, Olive. Your illness has gotten bad. I'm afraid it won't be safe for you to go home anymore."

She started to cry but the Secretary knew exactly how to console her, because it was the same tricks that worked on her so many years ago. "Now don't cry, Olive. I made a special room just for you in this lab, so I can always take care of you. Would you like to see?"

Without giving a second thought, Olivia got out of bed and took the Secretary's hand as they walk out of the room down a hallway to a special elevator. He reached out to the number pad and typed the activation code. He saw Olivia reaching out towards the buttons with her free hand. "I can reach the buttons now."

The elevator traveled down about five stories until they arrived at an empty floor where a lone door stood. The Secretary undid all the locks and then opened the door. He led Olivia into the room and her eyes twinkled with amazement. "You brought my whole room!"

The cell was cleverly and brilliantly designed to resemble her bedroom at age 5 in complete detail. The walls were yellow with the little butterflies painted in. The bed still had the lacey canopy (now extended to accommodate her big-girl size). All the furniture was arranged in the same matter it was at home. Even the purple play rug was positioned on the floor exactly in the center like it always was.

"And look, Olive," Walter opened another door. "You have your own bathroom. But I'll still be down to make sure you brush your teeth. Come on."

Olivia pouted but went into the bathroom and was happy that she could now reach the sink for her toothbrush without a stand. Walter stood by the door and watched Olive as she proudly brushed her teeth and then spit out. But she still had excess toothpaste foam dripping down her chin. Just like she always did.

"Messy." Walter grabbed a cloth and wiped the mess off her chin. "It's time for bed now."

Olivia ran over to her toy box and grabbed the big stuffed dog she always had to sleep with before climbing into bed. "Shall I read you a story before I go?"

"Yes, please."

He went to the shelf and pulled out _Hop on Pop_. He pulled up a chair and took pleasure in Olive's attentiveness as he read. When he closed the book, Olive finally asked "Daddy, where's mommy?"

"I'm afraid she's left us."

But what did that mean? Did she die? Did she runaway? The Secretary didn't say anymore and just tucked her in. "But it's going to be alright, little Olive. I will never leave you. We will always be together."

He then got up and turned on the switch for shutting the room lights and activating the nightlights. In his mind, there was nothing wrong with what he was doing. He knew that his little Olive had a body that did not match her age. Even with science, he could only reverse the physical aging back 10-15 years at most, but he could also make it so she would never age another day. His little girl was only a temporary brainwashed presence for now, but that was enough for him. The stabilizer to make the change permanent would soon be ready and then he would finally be respected. Peter? Peter, who? Today he vowed to erase all trace and acknowledgment of the son who had betrayed him. There was no love there. Even his wife was being distant, as if he had gone mad.

But he knew his little Olive would never think that. The last time she was 5-years-old, it was wasted on conditioning her mind. With this new drug, the Secretary had all the time in the world now to be a father to her. No more betrayal. No more talking back. She would be unquestionably loyal and completely dependent on him, as a child her age should.

His little Olive would always love him.

He continued to tell these things to himself as he left the room and began locking it. "Not enough," he mumbled. "Not enough locks. I must get more. I can't let anyone take my little girl away from me…I must get more!"

…

They arrived at a Central Park that was mostly either quarantined or abandoned. "Almost there. We have to hurry."

But Peter saw no one around pursuing them. You'd think they shut down the whole city to find them both. "Hey, Liv. How did you escape from him? My father?"

"Long story," she said. "I'll explain more when we get back."

They got to the spot and she checked her watch again. "Okay, let me try this."

Peter heard gunshots in the distance and grabbed her hand. "Let's get out of here! That could be them!"

But she didn't want him to take her out of the zone of the extraction point. "Peter, stop!"

"Are you crazy? They're coming for us." In a sudden decision of panic, Peter picked her up. "What are you doing? Let go of me!"

Peter had carried her unknowingly beyond the borders of the extraction point when a sudden bright light appeared and then shaking. Peter put her down and looked around confused at what had just happened. And then, a man jumped out of the bushes with a gun pointed at Peter. "Get behind me, Liv."

But then Peter heard a gun clicking behind him. He turned around and to his horror, the woman he thought was Olivia had a gun to the back of his head.

"Looks like you missed your trip back home," she said coldly. "By orders of the Secretary, my associate and I need to go with our backup plan: to kill you."

Peter took a good look at her and realized. "You're not Olivia…then who…"

BANG!

The man that had a gun to Peter was suddenly struck down. Peter and the fake Olivia stopped and look around. And then from out of nowhere came a strike to fake-Olivia's head and she fell unconscious. Peter watched as a taller older man dropped his shovel to pick up the guns. He tossed one to Peter. "Follow me Peter, and hurry."

There was no time to question who this man was or how he knew Peter. He was quick to follow him. They both ran until they were out of Central Park and in a dark, quiet alley. "I know what you're thinking but I assure you that wasn't her brainwashed. That was Olivia's alter. The Secretary ordered a fake escape at your prison hoping that you'd go back to your world without his daughter."

"How do you know that? Who the hell are you?"

"Terribly sorry, Peter," the man said. " I forgot it's been so long since I've last seen you. But good to see you're well." He then took out his hand. "I'm your father's friend. My name is William Bell."


	14. Chapter 14

"You're William Bell…THE William Bell that my father use to work with?"

"We're not referring to the Secretary, mind you," said William.

"Yes, I meant Walter."

William Bell pulled Peter deeper into the alley. "It's not safe to talk here. Eventually they'll know that you haven't gone back yet."

They fled to William Bell's apartment in the lower end of the city. Peter tried to ask "So how are you…I mean…why are you here on this side?"

"I've done my fair share of traveling between the universes for years before you were taken," said William. "I'm afraid if anyone is to blame for all of this, it's me. I'm the one who encouraged your father to defy the boundaries of science and do the unthinkable. I'm the one who encouraged him to come here for you and set in forth the events that would result in Olive's kidnapping. Strange events began to occur after you were brought to us Peter. Walter and I thought it was best to test our Cortexiphan subjects to see if they could remedy the situation. It went terribly wrong."

William felt remorseful but a realization made Peter angry. "Are you telling me you've been able to travel back and forth all this time and not once have you tried to get Olivia back?"

"It was a delicate situation, Peter. I had developed an alias in this universe…one as an associate to the Secretary. I thought that doing so would allow me to find a way to resolve the tensions and problems between our worlds. But upon learning that he had taken Olive and was conditioning her to be a replacement for you, it compromised everything. I had to keep up appearances even if it meant keeping Olive here…even if it meant for them to discover the secrets of Cortexiphan. I promised Walter that I would look after Olive in her captivity and I stayed in this world as much as I could to be a man of my word. Eventually, I fell into Walternate's good graces…"

"Walternate?"

William laughed. "Our term for the Secretary. I became Walternate's closest and most trustworthy adviser and in doing so I was the very man that he saw fit to tutor his little girl. As close as I was to Olive, I had to remain cautious…limit my teachings to what I would only be allowed to teach her, but I encouraged her to think beyond her capabilities…to look beyond her own scope. My hope was for Olive to discover her abilities on her own and use them to return home. But that I'm afraid did not work out either."

Peter growled. "You could've tried harder!"

"There was nothing I could do. Over the years since you were taken I had seen Walternate's mental state slowly degenerate. It wasn't long before he had developed an obsession with power and control. I have done what I could to shield Olive from that madness but now with everything out in the open, I fear he may do something drastic to keep her under his control."

"So where is she?" asked Peter. "How do we get her out?"

"Currently in a secret bunker at Fringe headquarters. I do have a plan that can get the two of you back home. But it cannot happen until tonight. Until then, I'm expected to meet with Walternate today. You must stay in this apartment and keep low until I return." William grabbed his coat. "Help yourself to the kitchen. This maybe your only chance to have some New Coke before you go home."

…

William knew that he was likely summoned to the Secretary's office at Fringe headquarters to discuss the results of the new drug Olivia was given. His assumptions were confirmed when Walternate activated a secret channel on his private monitors. On this channel was video surveillance of Olive's "room". She was sitting on the floor, dressed in regular adult street clothes, playing with her dolls and stuff animals. But as William observed, she seem very listless. She would pick up a toy for 5 seconds move it about the room and then just put it back down. And when she wasn't doing that, her attention would be focused on just staring at a wall or she would get up and twirl around the room only to sit down blankly again.

Even through the monitor, William could see that her face had become sickly pale from the amount of drugs she had been given since this new experiment began.

"Isn't she wonderful?" said Walternate. "And so obedient. Far worthy of the Bishop name than any child I have sired."

"But I assume she has more value to you than as a mere replacement," said William.

"Ah yes, her universe crossing abilities. Such is the reason for this transformation. The only way I can gain control of those powers is to gain complete control of her. Do you see the genius in this, William? Just imagine it. I de-educate her of any prior knowledge of the world. She will not know a single number or word unless I alone teach her. And once the stabilizer is completed, her mind shall be completely at my mercy. It will be eternally trapped in its child-like form and I will be able to reach in and shape it at will. I can tell her that the sky outside is green and she'll believe it. I can make fear the outside world and she'll never want to leave her room. She will hang on to my every word and look upon me as if I were God himself. Is that not what every parent would want of their child?"

William became disturbed by Walternate's ideas. "Mr. Secretary?" A soldier unexpectedly appeared at the door. "Your wife is here to see you."

Walternate grumbled and stepped outside of his office. "Elizabeth, I thought told you to leave me to my peace at work."

"I want to see her, Walter. Please. I'm begging you. I just need to see if she's alright."

"It's not possible," Walternate growled. "She has to remain in her cell if she's not to hurt anyone. She can't have any outside contact."

"She's my daughter, Walter!"

But the Secretary only shook his head. "Too dangerous. And I will not let you be harmed by our own child ever again."

"Peter is our true child and he has never hurt us!"

Elizabeth gasped when the Secretary suddenly grabbed her arm. He gave her a threatening look and calmly said to her "You will never speak of that name ever again. Do I make myself clear?" He released his wife into the hands of a nearby soldier. "Escort her out!"

As Elizabeth was being led away, her fearful eyes caught sight of William Bell sitting in her husband's office. William in turn gave her a sad look. Something terrible was happening and she had no idea what it was but William knew.

"Does Olive not know of her?" William asked Walternate.

"She has no need. Elizabeth has become ill in the mind. She speaks of Peter as if he was still with us. That is not something I wish to expose my little Olive to." He then poured two wine glasses. "Let us have a toast, William…to my Olive and to her good health."

…

As soon as William left, Walternate brought Olive up and did some blood tests. By the end of the day Olive was ready for bed and this time, Walternate was going to tell her a different bedroom story…

"You see, Olive. These monsters come out at night to devour children. They can seek children who are outside in the night by smell, and that is what drives their hunger. It is even believed that some of these monsters are able to come out in the light of day."

Olive pulled her blanket up. "I don't like this story."

"I only tell you this to help you understand why you must never be allowed to go outside, Olive. It's a very dangerous place. You're better safe within the confinement of this facility. This room is even safer. These monsters can get sick when indoors so they only roam outdoors."

"You won't make me go outside, will you Daddy?"

"Of course not, Olive. I would never let any harm come to my little girl."

Almost instantly, Olive's fears subsided with a chuckle. "Daddy, I'm not little. I'm big."

"Of course you are," said Walternate as he tucked her in. "But as far as I'm concerned, you'll always be little…" When he was done, he bid Olive goodnight and went to work on installing the new locks to her bedroom door. "…and you'll always be mine."

…

Peter had been enjoying the New Coke in William's apartment when he finally came back. It was now time to put their plan to work. The two were on their way back to Fringe Headquarters in the middle of the night.

"Time is short," said William. "Walternate's descent into madness has reached terrifying levels. The stabilizer will be ready in a day or two."

"What stabilizer?" Peter asked.

"One that will make the change in Olive permanent."

This made Peter very worried. "What change? What did he do to her?"

"You'll see when we get there," said William. "If my theory is correct about what he did, then my plan should work."

Using William's access card, the men were able to sneak their way in. They found the old eerie elevator that would take them to Olivia. William had managed to learn the secret code to the elevator that only Walternate was supposed to know and the two rode to the bottom. They arrive in a small dark hallway at the very bottom where a door stood filled with numerous locks and chains and now a gate.

For the longest time, Peter and William went to work picking and breaking through the various locks and chains to the door opened. It was like nothing they had ever seen before. Walternate's obsession to keep Olivia locked up like this was in itself disturbing enough.

The task was completed but William wanted to prepare Peter for what he was about to see. "You must listen to me very carefully, Peter. Olive's mind is in a very fragile state. We cannot give her reason to fear us. If she screams for any reason it will activate the alarm. Whatever I say to her, play along. She needs to know that we can be trusted."

They stepped into a room that was in total darkness except for a nightlight in the corner. Peter took his flashlight out to explore. Seeing the colorful wallpaper and the toys on the floor, Peter thought that this had to be the wrong place. It looked as though they were in a child's bedroom. He then turned his flashlight to the corner of the room. There was Olivia curled up in corner of her bed looking at the two strangers in her room with fear. She was wearing yellow pajamas and clutching a stuff dog. But what gave Peter the biggest chills was seeing how pale her skin had become and the dark circles that had developed around her almost lifeless eyes. Walternate had been drugging her again, even greater than before. She had became somewhat of a child-like zombie.

"Lower your light, Peter."

Peter dimmed his flashlight and watched as Olivia shifted slightly.

"It's alright Olive," said William. "It's me."

"…Belly?"

William smiled. "Yes, Olive. It's Belly."

"Daddy says I wasn't going to have school anymore."

Peter felt stick to his stomach. She was calling that man she had tried so hard to escape from 'Daddy'?

"I know Olive. But we just need to do one more lesson. A biology lesson. It would require a field trip outside."

"…no." Olivia quickly scooted back into the corner again. "Not outside. Daddy says monsters are outside."

"Olive, it's going to be alright."

"…please…"

"Olive, I promise you that you'll be safe. You're going to be with me. I promised your father that I wouldn't let any harm come to you and I'm a man of my word. Once we're done, you'll get to see him. Wouldn't you like that?"

Olivia nodded.

"Alright then. I'll help you get ready."

William helped Olivia tie her shoes and put on a jacket. All the while Peter was just standing there with the light, at a lost for words. He couldn't believe what Walternate did to Olivia or what his sick twisted incentives were for doing so. Thank god it wasn't permanent yet, but now he could see why she needed to get out of this place quickly.

"Olive, this is Peter. You can trust him. He's a friend."

Peter was looking terrified as Olivia looked up and stared at him. She was starting to get upset and Peter realized he needed to act. He gave Olivia a friendly comforting smile and said "hi".

"Hi," she said back.

"Olive, you take Peter's hand now and we'll make sure that the monsters don't come after us, alright?"

Reluctantly Peter accepted Olivia's hand. She was squeezing it very tight as the three rode back up in the elevator. She was still terrified of the idea that there were monsters outside. She was also very quiet which allowed William and Peter to sneak her out of the lab safely but once they were outdoors in the middle of the night, her fears began to haunt her again. She clutched her stuff dog very tightly as they began their trek to the boat that would lead them back to Manhatan.

They were doing well as very few guards were outside…until Olivia tripped on a step and screamed.

A siren began to echo throughout Liberty Island.

"Get her up!" William and Peter rushed to pick up Olivia and they started running. "Go…go!"

The soldiers came pouring out and began shooting at the trio, who managed to take shelter behind a group of tall trees.

Olivia started to cry. "Are those the monsters?" she asked referring to the shadows of the men looking for them.

"Yes, child," said William. "Those are the monsters."

From where they were hiding, Peter and William could see the Secretary himself angry and fuming. He went out ahead of the group and called out "Olive?"

Olivia heard it and she recognized the voice. "Olive, this is your father." He was using a sickingly persuasive voice. "Olive I'm not mad at you. Please come out. Please come to me where you'll be safe."

A part of Olivia was terrified to obey the voice but she couldn't help but step one foot out of the shadows.

"Olive, no!"

There was nothing Peter and William could do. Olive felt obligated to listen to the voice of her father. "That's it, Olive. Come here."

She even dropped her stuff animal, ignoring all other voices but the sweet comforting sound of a parent. Finally she was in the Secretary's arms and was crying. "There now, my little Olive. It's alright. I'm not mad at you." The Secretary was hugging her and then looked out at the two men hiding in the distance. "Now I'll see to it that those demons are killed for ever touching you."

With a motion of his hand, Walternate ordered the soldiers to advance and kill the two attempted captors on sight.


	15. Chapter 15

The guards were advancing quickly and Peter was about ready to run. But William seemed calm and collected. He opened his jacket. "Nothing to worry about, Peter," he said. "I always come prepared."

And he pulled out a hand grenade.

Peter tried to stop him. It seemed crazy of William to throw a grenade that could kill all of them, let alone Olivia. But it was too late as William pulled the pin and threw it at the advancing men.

Peter and William duck just in time as a huge explosion occurred.

"Now's our chance!" cried William. He pulled Peter up and they both went into the fire. They found them both: Walternate and Olivia. They were lying on the ground alive but unconscious. William picked up Olivia and they quickly fled. On the way Peter saw on the ground the stuff dog that Olivia was carrying and took it with him. William threw one more grenade at the soldiers when things started to pick up again. With the fire distracting everyone, the group managed to get back to their boat, located in a secret tunnel of the island, and make their escape back to the mainland.

…

Olive had a bad dream tonight. When she woke up, she knew she wasn't in her bedroom. Fear of her foreign surroundings kept her immobile and silent. She was lying on a couch in a strange run down apartment with a blanket over her. She smelled like smoke. Her eyes darted all over the placed as she kept herself from moving or even speaking.

She started moaning for her daddy.

Peter went to her side. "Hey, you alright?"

Olivia looked at Peter in confusion. "Where's daddy?"

William and Peter just awkwardly stared at each other. "Um…he wanted you to finish your lesson first. Think you're up to it?"

Olivia nodded. She thought the sooner this got done, the sooner she could go home.

"How about something to eat first?"

Olivia pulled herself out of bed in agreement.

There was sudden knock at the door that caused everyone to freeze. William went up to the door and checked the peephole. "It's alright," he said. "I told her to come."

Peter was confused. Who was this 'her' that he told to come?

The door opened and to his shock, Elizabeth stepped into the apartment carrying a couple of suitcases with her.

"Peter?"

"Mom."

Peter went to hug her. "What are you doing here?"

"William told me everything. Your father…he was going to send me to a mental institution."

William grabbed a small envelope and gave it to Elizabeth. "Your plane ticket. One-way trip to London from Newark. It leaves in a couple of hours."

"Thank you," she said. "I just had to see my children one last time before…"

They heard an unusual sound coming from the living room. All eyes found Olivia suddenly lying on the floor in her own vomit and it looked like she was having a seizure.

"Olivia?"

"Olivia!"

Both Peter and Elizabeth rushed over to Olivia's side. "Help me," she cried.

Elizabeth picked up Olivia's head. "Olivia? Olivia, it's me, dear." She seemed terrified by how sickly pale Olivia was as her pupils had shrunk, almost as if they weren't there.

"Mommy?"

Elizabeth never heard Olivia call her that in years. "Yes, darling. It's me."

"Daddy says you left us."

Elizabeth started to cry and she took the shaking Olivia into her arms and started to cradle her. "No, Olivia. I would never leave you. I'm here now."

"What's happening to her?" asked Peter.

William hurried over to the cabinet and grabbed some pills from a bottle and stuffed it into a piece of bed. "It's a drug reaction." He gave Elizabeth the rolled up piece of bread. "Give her this."

Elizabeth placed the bread up to Olivia's lips. "Come on, Olivia. Please eat." Peter watched as his mother managed to coax Olivia into taking the bread. She was using the gentle familiar voice that he once recognized.

"She has at least a dozen different drugs in her bloodstream," explained William. "There may have been a bad reaction between a few of the compounds."

Peter was feeling sick to his stomach and so was Elizabeth. She was looking helplessly at the woman she had raised from childhood and could barely recognize her in her sickly deteriorated state. "Oh god. What did he do to you?"

After all of these years, she stood by while her husband treated Olivia like a guinea pig who had to be tested on because she came from another universe. But Olivia wasn't an experiment. She was her daughter.

"She's getting better now," said Peter. "She stopped shaking."

"That's good," said William. "Give her a little more time. She'll be in a good shape to take you both back."

Olivia had fallen asleep again, this time in Elizabeth's arms. Peter gave her a stuff dog that she instantly recognized. "This was her favorite." She sadly tucked the toy into Olivia's arms.

"Mom…I…"

"It's alright, Peter," she said. "She needs to go back where she truly belongs…where the both of you belong." Elizabeth took the locket off from around her neck and placed it around Olivia's. She gave her a kiss on her forehead and then went to hug Peter. "Please…look after her for me."

Peter smiled seeing how much Olivia meant to her, how she was able to fill the void left by his disappearance. "Of course I will, mom."

Elizabeth knew she had to leave even though it was all too soon. But knowing they would both be much safer a universe away from her husband, she was finally able to accept letting go. She looked upon her two children one last time before walking out the door.

William and Peter let Olivia rest for a couple more hours until she was fully well and ready.

"How did it feel?" William asked Peter.

"How did what feel?"

"To learn the truth."

"I almost wanted to lose it as bad as Olivia did."

"I understand."

"No," said Peter. "Because if Walter had never taken me from here, then this would've never happened to Olivia. She didn't deserve this."

"The Walter who raised you is a good man, Peter…a man who made mistakes all the same. The two of us both knew there would be great consequences but we could not foresee the certain individuals who would be affected. But this Walter, I have seen do unspeakable things with science. He pushed the boundaries in ways I never thought were possible. But they were all for his own benefit and agenda, no one else's. He would've never cross universes to save a child's life. If Walternate knew of my true origins, we would never see me as human again."

Peter sighed. "What do I now? With Olivia like this…"

"She will recover. It will be a slow, painful, process. But her memories should slowly return within a few months," he said. "I'll give you something to take back with you that will help. Our Walter will have some things as well. I would not underestimate The Secretary's persistence. I would see to Olivia being sent into hiding if at all possible…"

Hearing loud sirens outside, William looked out the window to investigate.

Outside there were police cars and armed trucks bearing the Fringe Division symbol on them.

"They found us," said William.

"What? But how?"

"This apartment complex is a weak spot. They probably picked it up on her radar. Wake Olivia up. You two need to get back now before we're all ambered."

"Ambered?"

Peter hurried over to wake Olivia who was struggling to sleep. "Olivia?"

"I'm too tired."

"I know but we need to do this now." Peter was careful not to sound worried.

"Okay," she yawned.

William went over, "Olive, I want you to sit on the floor and hold Peter's hands." Olivia sat on the floor Indian style with the stuff dog in her lap. Peter did the same and the two of them hold hands.

"Now Olive, I want you to close your eyes and shut yourself of all the senses. Pretend that you hear nothing, that you see nothing."

A crashing noise could be heard and William and Peter knew that the men were now in the building.

"It's so hard."

"I know, Olive. You can do it. Just keep trying."

William looked out the window and saw that the soldiers were outside. He could see within the crowd, the Secretary. They were activating a machine that William could recognize right away.

They were going to amber the entire building.

Peter was beginning to feel light. "It's working," said William. He could see the two adults were slowly fading away. "Peter, don't let go of her. She almost has it."

Smoke was seeping in from under the door to the apartment. William placed himself against the door to slow the process. It was the last thing Peter saw and then he heard an echo…

"Forgive him Peter-er-er-er. Forgive your father-er-er-er…"

The room went dark. The smoke was gone and so was William.

Olivia was still there though and she looked frightened. The apartment did not look like what it did just a minute ago.

"Peter? What happened?"

Peter noticed something sticking to the end of Olivia's hair and pulled some of it off of her. It was sticky gooey amber.

He finally got a good look at the apartment and it looked dilapidated and abandoned. He went over to the window and saw no one out but a few cars driving up and down the street. The buildings across the street looked boarded up as well.

"I think we should get out of here."

Peter opened the door and Olivia was holding his hand very tightly. The entire building was dark. They found the stairs and saw the hallways were run down and full of graffiti.

"Get out of here!"

A homeless man was yelling at them when they got to the ground floor. "This is my squat. I found it first! Get out!"

Quickly Peter pulled Olivia to the front door until the two of them were finally out on the street. Olivia was crying.

"Olivia, it's gonna be okay. Just stick with me, alright? We're almost home."

But Peter started to wonder how long he could keep up this charade with 5-year-old Olivia. He figure it was best to find out where they were first. They eventually found a busier street and Peter managed to flag a taxi. Olivia held onto Peter even as the two of them climbed into the backseat. She still clutched that stuff animal in her other arm.

The taxi driver looked at them oddly but then notice that it was 3am on his clock. This seemed typical for this hour. "Where to?"

"Massive Dynamic."

The taxi driver set his coordinates for Massive Dynamic.

"Hey," Peter asked the taxi driver. "Who's the Secretary of Defense?"

"What is this? 8th grade history? It's Robert Gates. They were just talking about him on the radio yesterday."

"And he's stationed here in New York, right?"

"Oh man, are you from Canada or something? The guy works in D.C. like everyone else."

Peter felt relieved. They were back. They were finally back in the right universe.


End file.
